USA > California > San Joaquin County > An illustrated history of San Joaquin County, California. Containing a history of San Joaquin County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its future prospects; > Part 49
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IIISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
the highest grade certificates, was full of am- bition, and had a most brilliant future before her. Her loss is mourned by a host of friends. Rollin E. has charge of the home place, and he is one who will do justice to the charge left to him. The children by the first marriage are: E. B., Alta M., wife of J. B. Webster, and Lucy, wife of George H. Merrill. Charles Alling Stowe, January 1, 1884, married Miss Doris R. Grupe, daughter of Charles Grupe, and resides on a farm, five miles east of Stockton. They have a daughter, Elsie Grupe, born June 20. 1885.
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R. A. W. HOISHOLT, Assistant Physi- cian of the State Insane Asylum, and one of the leading physicians of Stockton, is a native of Denmark, born in August, 1858. When a mere lad he came with his uncles to the United States, locating at Chicago. When they left there in 1875, he was attending the Chicago High School. They removed to Stock- ton, and he continued his education in the high school of this city, where he was graduated in 1877. He then commenced the study of medi-
cine, preparatory to a college course in that science, and afterward began attendance at the Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, where he was graduated in the class of 1882. He then went to Heidelberg, Germany, and was graduated from that world-renowned institution in 1884. This thorough training was then sup- plemented by practical experience in the lead- ing hospitals of the European capitals, where he made a specialty of the study of nervons dis- eases, and in 1886 he returned to California, after seven years continuous preparation for his chosen profession. He had made arrangements to lecture at Cooper Medical College, but his healthı having suffered from his long and severe course of study, he spent six months in rusti- cating. His strength recovered, he located in Stockton, where he has since been engaged in active and successful practice. When the board
of trustees of the State Insane Asylum met in 1889, to fill the vacancy in the medical staff of the institution caused by the death of Dr. Washington, the name of Dr. Hoisholt was presented, with a number of others, to fill the vacancy, and he was chosen by the board for the important position.
Dr. Hoisholt is a member of the San Joaquin Medical Society. Thoughi a young man, no physician stands higher with his colleagues of the profession than he.
RANCIS REYNER, a farmer of Tulare Township, was born in Montgomery County, Maryland, in 1834, where he re- sided until the spring of 1851, when he moved to Iowa, where he made his home for eight years. He crossed the plains in 1861 by ox teams, arriving in Stocktou after a five months' journey. He came to Tulare and rented 320 acres of choice land of John Travis, which he farms, his principal product being grain. He owns his own farming implements and stock.
He was married to Mrs. Louisa (Bridwell) Travis, a daughter of Richard Travis, who was born in Missouri in 1834. They have two chil- dren-Francis D. and Mary E., the latter being Mrs. Reyner's daughter by her former hus- band.
AVID R. REYNOLDS was born in Put- nam County, Indiana, May 1, 1836 When four years of age he went with his parents to Grant County, Wisconsin, where he remained until he was seventeen years old. In 1853 he started for California, crossing the plains and arriving at the Cosumnes river after a trip of six months and seventeen days. He remained there one year, then proceeded to the mines where he spent five years with little suc- cess. He and his brother, Richard R., bought 320 acres of land three miles from French
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Camp. In the fall of 1860 he returned East. Mr. Reynolds remained there until 1864, and again started for California. This time he made the trip across the plains in five months and a few days, landing in Stockton August 22, of that year. He went at once to his farm of 372 acres. The land is very rich, fifty-two acres of it being bottoni land, and well adapted to general farming. It is well improved and is adorned by a fine large residence.
Mr. Reynolds was married to Isabel Harel- son, a native of Wisconsin, who was born August 23, 1841, and they have a family of five children, viz .: Henrietta, Melvin E., Clyde H., Matthew (., and Gertie B.
ILLIAM M. GIBSON, Assisant Dis- trict Attorney and Court Commissioner of San Joaquin County, residing in Stockton, was born in Covington, Kentucky, July 29, 1851, a son of W. T. A. and Cather- ine (Joyner) Gibson. The father, born in that State, became a druggist, following that busi- ness some years before leaving for California in 1852. He arrived with his wife and son in San Francisco, January 1, 1853, and went to mining for two years in Amador County. In 1855 he settled in this city, and resumed the previous occupation of druggist for a few years. Being a graduate of a southern educational institution, he was appointed the first superintendent of the public schools of this city, holding the position for some years. He was county tax-collector in 1872 and 1873, and died here in March, 1889, aged sixty-eight. The mother died in San Fran- cisco in 1887 at the age of sixty. Grandfather George Gibson, of Scotch descent, became an extensive tobacco-planter, in his native State, Kentucky, and died at the age of seventy-nine. Grandparents Joyner, natives of North Carolina, also lived to an advanced age.
The subject of this sketch was educated in the public and private schools of this city to the age of twelve, when he was placed in a collegi-
ate school at Oakland until the opening of the University of California in 1868, then in the University Mound College in San Francisco until 1870, when he entered the University of California. In 1872 he went to New York and entered the law department of the Union Uni- versity, at which he was graduated in May, 1873, and on examination admitted to the bar of that State. He was married in Albany, New York, in 1873, to Miss Jera Wing, born in that city about 1854, a daughter of D. L. and Rachel (Wing) Wing. The father was proprietor of the Julien Flour Mills of that city. The paternal grandparents of Mrs. Gibson lived to celebrate their golden wedding and were over eighty at their death. On the return of Mr. Gibson to Stockton with his wife in 1874, he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court, and has prac- ticed his profession here since that time. He has been, successively, assistant district attor- ney to W. L. Hopkins, J. C. Campbell, S. A. Booker, and the present incumbent, A. C. White. He is also one of the local attorneys for the Southern Pacific Railroad. He has been a member of the staff of the Third Brigade, National Guard of California, fourteen years, and is its Adjutant, with the rank of Lieuten- ant Colonel, since 1889.
Mr. and Mrs. Gibson have two children: Williamn M., Jr., born February 6, 1875, and Fred Raymond, born September 3, 1877.
ORMAN E. ALLING, a native of Litch- field County, Connectient, was born June 19, 1835, his parents being Luther and Betsy (Dauchy) Alling. The father, a farmer by trade, died in Connecticut. The subject was raised on the home farm. As soon as he was able he started out in life for himself. For a while he ran the engine of a saw-mill and also taught school; in fact he was always busy, never having to wait for a situation as his services were always in demand. In the fall of 1856 he came to California and located in the San Joa-
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quin valley, about seven miles from Stockton. He was for a time engaged in inining in Chili Gulch, Calaveras County. He ran a dairy in the mountains, supplying the mining camps for two seasons. In 1865 he came again to this valley and purchased 160 acres of Dr. Kelsey, having sold out his first ranch. He resided on the latter place until 1884, when he purchased the Nelson place, which adjoins his own, and also eighty acres of Vance. He now owns about 470 acres of fine, improved land, devoted to general farming. At one time he owned a half interest in 480 acres near Atlanta, this county.
He was married in March, 1862, to Miss Lorett Morse, a native of Orleans Connty, New York. They have three children, two girls and one boy, namely: Clara, wife of George Ashley ; Alice J., wife of George W. Taterson; Lucius E. His wife died in 1871 and he was again married in 1873. Mrs. Alling's maiden name was Mary A. Bennett, a native of Orleans County, New York. They have three children, namely: Bessie M., Grace A. and Mark N. Mr. Alling is a member of Stockton Grange, No. 70, and is acting Master of the same.
HARLES MORRILL KENISTON, agent of the California Navigation and Improve- ment Company, in Stockton, was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, January 7, 1851, a son of Charles Calvin and Rebecca J. ( Mc- Pherson) Keniston. The mother, born in that State, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William McPherson, was married in 1850, and died March 17, 1853, leaving one child, who is the subject of this sketch. Both her parents lived to the age of about seventy. Her husband, C. C. Keniston, was born in Franklin, New Hamp- shire, June 23, 1827, a son of Samnel and Lydia (Pingree) Keniston, both natives of that State. His father, born in 1798, died in 1854, and the mother, who was three years older, lived to the age of seventy, dying in 1865. Grandmother Keniston (by birth a Miss Quimby) also a native
of that State, lived to be ninety-six, dying abont 1862. Grandfather Aquila Pingrce owned a large tract of land and also carried on the busi- ness of "clothier" or clothi-dresser. Two of his grandsons Pingree, lawyers by profession, were colonels in the civil war, and one of these has since been governor of Vermont. The Kenis- tons and Pingrees are of New England descent for several generations. C. C. Keniston re- ceived an academic education with a view to becoming a teacher, but preferred to learn the trade of machinist. He served as an apprentice from 1844 to 1847, in Manchester and there worked as a journeyman nine years. Meanwhile he was again married December 1, 1855, to Mrs. Lucinda M. (Johnson) Ferson, born in New Hampshire, January 31, 1828, a daughter of Sylvanns and Mary (Howard) Johnson, botlı natives of that State. About 1856 Mr. C. C. Keniston was transferred by his employers from the shop to the cotton-mill, where he worked for twenty years as overseer. He came to California in 1878, arriving at Stockton on the 13th of August. Here he held the position of book-keeper for Mr. P. Henderson five years and foreman four years. In February, 1887, he went to work for Blake & McMahon, now Blake, Carpenter & McMahon, as book-keeper, the position he still holds in 1890. He is a deacon, trustee and treasurer of the Congregational Church, of which Mrs. Keniston is also a mem- ber. He has been a member of the I. O. O. F. since 1848 and a charter member as well as First Noble Grand of Truth Lodge, No. 55, of Stockton, and has belonged to the encampment about thirty years, having passed the chair in that order also. Mr. and Mrs. Keniston have been members of the I. O. G. T. for many years.
Charles Morrill Keniston, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the public schools of Manchester, New Hampshire, fitted for col- lege at Northwood Seminary in New Hamp- shire and was graduated from the Normal School of that State in 1872. He taught in that institution for one year and in other schools
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before and after graduation at intervals for five years. Meanwhile he had begun the study of law in the office of Chief Justice Ladd of New Hampshire and followed it up by private study as opportunity afforded. He came to Califor- nia in 1874 and taught here in that and the following year when he went East and took a full course in the Albany law-school. He was gradnated from that institution in 1877 and ad- mitted to the bar in New York and New Hampshire. Returning to Stockton in that year he was elected principal of the Franklin school, retaining the position until 1880, and was then elected superintendent of the public schools of this county, serving the full term. He was deputy city attorney of Stockton the first term under the new constitution, and in 1883 formed a law partnership with Frank H. Smith under the style of Smith & Keniston, which by the accession of Stanton L. Carter, January 1, 1885, became Carter, Smith & Kenis- ton. Mr. Keniston withdrew from the firm in 1887 and spent that and part of the following year in southern California. Meanwhile he had served as a member of the board of education in 1886. On his return from the South in May, 1888, he accepted the position of Stockton agent for the California Steam Navigation Company, changed in May, 1889, to the California Navigation and Improvement Company, which position he still holds. In 1889 he was re-elected to the Board of Education for four years.
Mr. Keniston was married in Lancaster, New Hampshire, 1874, to Miss Lucia Porter, a native of that State, who died of consumption in Santa Barbara, California, in 1875, leaving no issue. He was again married in 1877 to Miss Nellie W. Nichols, born in Monmouth, Maine, August 12, 1856, a daughter of Martin M. and Flora A. ( Leadbetter) Nichols, both living in this city in 1890. The father was born in Monmonth, Maine, June 5, 1819, the mother in Livermore, Maine, November 30, 1820. The father is the youngest of thirteen children, of whom eleven lived to be over seventy. Ilis mother Nancy (Blake) Nichols, a native of Meredith, New
Hampshire, lived to be ninety-three, and his father, Nathaniel, was over seventy at his death. Mr. and Mrs. Keniston have had three children, of whom the oldest, Lucia Nichols Keniston, born September 20, 1878, happily survives her two brothers.
Mr. Keniston has belonged to the I. O. O. F. from the age of twenty-one, being now a mem- ber of Stockton Lodge, No. 11, of which he has been secretary for eleven successive terms and Noble Grand in 1889. He is also a member of San Joaquin Lodge, No. 19, F. & A. M., Secre- tary of the Masonic Hall Committee, and Worthy Patron of Homo Chapter, No. 50, O. E. S. Mr. Keniston and family are regular attendeuts of the Congregational church.
ACOB MEYER, a rancher of Dent Town- hip,.was born in Switzerland, August 13, 1832, a son of Jacob and (Meyer) Meyer. The mother died at about fifty years of age, but the father reached the age of seventy- five, dying in 1858. The subject of this sketch worked on his father's farm in his youth. In 1859 he came to the United States by way of Havre, France. Arriving in New York he proceeded at once to Seneca County, Ohio, where he hired out as a farm hand, near Attica. In 1861 he enlisted in the Fifty-fifth Ohio, John C. Lee, Colonel, and served to the close of the war-being honorably discharged July 11, 1865, at Louisville, Kentucky; is in receipt of a small pension since 1886. On his return from the war he resumed farm labor in Seneca County, Ohio.
Mr. Meyer was married in Tiffin, Ohio, on January 19, 1867, to Miss Catherine Schneider, born in Bavaria, February 21, 1837, dangliter of Peter and Anna (Felz) Schneider. They had emigrated to America in 1857 with three daughters, another daughter having preceded them in 1853. They settled near Tiffin, Ohio, and the father worked at his trade of shoemaker. IIe died in 1882 aged seventy-two.
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
Jacob Meyer, the subject of this sketchi, next rented a farm in Ohio for three years and in the spring of 1871 came to California by railroad. Before the close of the year he purchased the ranch he still owns on the Stanislaus, containing 257 acres, about fifty of which are bottom land, subject to overflow. The upland is good wheat land and the bottom is adapted to alfalfa and fruit-raising; and he cultivated them accordingly for wheat and hay, with a little fruit, chiefly for home use. He also owns a soldier's homestead of 160 acres in Merced County. Mr. and Mrs. Meyer have five children, namely: Frederick, born December 29, 1867; George, March 20, 1869; Ann Elizabethi, February 7, 1871, all born in Ohio; Jacob Peter, born August 8, 1873; and Clara Ellen, November 28, 1879, both born in California. Mr. Meyer belonged to the Grand Army of the Republic, but, find- ing it too inconvenient to attend the meetings, he withdrew in 1888.
D. MIDDLEKAUF .- No young man in San Joaquin County has earned a greater reputation for energy, business tact and ability than he whose name heads this sketch. He is a native of Maryland, born at Hagerstown June 2, 1863, and when he was three years of age, the family removed to Rockford, Illinois. His father, who had been a fruit raiser and nur- seryman in the East, established a nursery at Oregon, Ogle County, Illinois, which he con- ducted until 1879, when he removed with his family to California. E. D. Middlekauf was educated at Rockford, and while in Illinois got his first insight into the nursery business. When they came to California, they embarked in the nursery business about two miles from Stockton on the Linden road, where they carried on that business until 1885, then established a nursery at Linden. The next year they started the Acampo nursery. In November, 1887, the sub- ject of this mention bought ont his partners-
Messrs. II. C. and D. E. Harrison, and he car- ried on a prosperous business at the Linden and Acampo nurseries until February, 1889, when he sold out. He then established another nurs- ery on Roberts Island, where he has eighty acres of land. He grows here all kinds of fruit trees suited to California climate, as well as the greatest variety of vines, and shade and orna- mental trees. He has established a very large trade, extending from Sacramento to Los An- geles, and in December, 1887, consummated the largest sale of trees ever made in this State, when he disposed of 36,000 trees to W. M. Williams, of Fresno. Among these were 2,000 orange trees, but the remainder were principally peach and apricot. During that season he dis- posed of over 200,000 trees and about 100,000 vines. From the nurseries which Mr. Middle- kauf has conducted many notable orchards liave been set, among which may be mentioned the following: that of Eaton & Walsh, 8,000 trees; Campo Dinco & Co. (San Joaquin bridge), 15,000 trees; Carr & Co. (Woodbridge), 12,000 trees; Frank P. Madden (Burson) 100 acres, 16,000, among them 500 orange trees; Dr. Meseroll (five miles east of Stockton), twenty-five acres in trees and vines ; M. Peters, twenty acres; S. Sanguinetti, eighty acres; the Curtis place (one mile north of Stockton), sixty acres; and many others too numerous to mention here. In every instance the owners of these places speak in the highest terms of the progress made by their trees and vines, and the results produced from them.
His interests in the nursery line, it will be thus seen, are very extensive, yet Mr. Middle- kauf, who is a mechanical genius, has made an equal success in the line of invention. His cork-puller and his self-acting carriage and farm gate, are both of great merit and valuable inven- tions, and business men have applied for part interests in them. He has invented a churn by which one makes butter in a minute and a half regardless of temperature.
Mr. Middlekauf is a member of Truth Lodge, No. 55, I. O. O. F., of Stockton. He is an
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indomitable worker, and has made an enviable reputation for fair dealing and business energy.
ACOB RHODES, a farmer of Tulare Town- ship, was born in South Carolina in 1835. He left his native State with his uncle, Cullin Rhodes, in 1852, for Louisiana, and thence to Arkansas, where he remained three years. He then came to California across the plains with ox teamns. After a journey of six months they arrived in Sonora, where he engaged in in ining. In Jnne, 1857, he came to San Joa- quin County, where he commenced herding cat- tle. He now owns a comfortable home; his ranch contains 320 acres of choice land, situated about eighteen miles from Stockton. He is principally engaged in the raising of stock, grain and horses.
He was married in Stockton in 1876, to Miss Annie Hanna, a native of Pennsylvania, who was born in 1849. They have three children: Annie, aged twelve years; John J., aged ten years, and Harry A., an infant.
ELSON MILLS ORR, Treasurer of the State Insane Asylum, and Secretary of the Buhach Producing and Manufacturing Company, of Stockton, was born in Corinth, Orange County, Vermont, August 21, 1832, a son of William and Hannah (Towle) Orr, both natives of that State. The fatlier, by occupa- tion a farmer, lived to be eighty-nine, and the mother reached the age of eighty. Grand- mother Nelly (Richardson) Towle was ninety- nine at her death, and the other grandparents lived to an advanced age. Grandfather Brack- ett Towle, a native of Massachusetts, a soldier of the Revolution, and the son of a soldier of the French war, rose to the rank of Lieutenant, and was engaged in the battles of Bunker Hill, Bennington, and others. His wife survived him many years, and was in receipt of a pension
in her old age. The Towles belonged to the Pilgrim immigration. Grandfather Robert Orr, by birth a Scotchman, came to America on the ship that brought the fateful Boston Port-bill. He was a radical Whig, and among the first set- tlers of Orange County, Vermont, grandfather Towle, the pioneer of the region, having pre- ceded him a few years. Robert Orr received a grant of land for building the first saw-mill in Corinth, where he also erected a grist-mill.
The subject of this sketch, reared on his father's farm, was educated in the district schools and afterward in the local academy, helping also on the farm when of proper age. Later he taught school a few terms, worked in the copper mines of Orange County about a year at the age of twenty-two, and read law two years, but never sought admission to the bar. He left home for California December 1, 1856, by the Panama route, and came at once to this city by . boat, and went thence by stage to Columbia, Tuolninne County. There he fol- lowed inining with inoderate success until 1863. He was a delegate to the first Republican county convention in 1856, helped to organize the first Republican club in that locality, and voted that fall for the first Republican candi- date for the Presidency, Jolin C. Fremont. In 1859 he was nominated for the Assembly by the Republican party in his district, and was defeated two to one. In 1860, again nominated for the same office, he made, with Judge Cavis, low of this city, the nominee for Senator, a thorough canvass of the district for the Repub- lican ticket, and again failed of election. In 1861 bothı were in the field, made a vigorous canvass, and were elected, but were counted out on a fraudulent report of an alleged precinct in Mono County. Messrs. Cavis and Orr contested the claims of their opponents, and Mr. Orr was seated, while Mr. Cavis, ou precisely the same statement and testimony, was defeated, one branch of the Legislature having a Republican, and the other a Democratic majority. In 1862 both were elected, Mr. Cavis for the Senate, and Mr. Orr for the Assembly, and served in the
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session of 1863. After the close of the session Mr. Orr returned for a short time to Tuolumne County, and then moved to San Francisco to take the position of assistant assessor of inter- nal revenue. He served in that office for eleven months, when he was appointed assessor for the third district of California, embracing eleven counties in the San Joaquin valley and adjoining territory. He held that office from April, 1864, to September, 1868. In the fall of 1868 he was nominated for State Senator for this county, canvass' d the county thoroughly, was elected and served in the session of 1869- '70. Immediately after his election he bought an interest in the Stockton Independent, be- coming half owner early in 1869, under the style of Orr & Beritzhoff. About 1874 he bought out his partner and conducted the paper as sole owner until 1879, when he sold out, re- maining here without being engaged in any particular business until October, 1880. He then went to eastern Oregon, where he spent eight months. Returning to this city, he was chosen the first secretary of the Stockton Board of Trade in 1882, and treasurer of the State In- sane Asylum in this city in 1883, holding the former position nntil 1886, and the latter to the present time. In 1886 he was employed by J. D Peters in his Buhach enterprise, and since the incorporation of that industry, in March, 1889, has been secretary of that corporation.
Mr. Orr was married in this city in 1866 to Miss Ada -Parker, born in Nantucket, Massa- chusetts, a daughter of R. B. Parker (see sketch of Mr. Parker). Mr. and Mrs. Orr are the par- ents of two living children: Edna, now a teacher in the public schools of Stockton, and Edith, born August 29, 1882. Mr. Orr is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. As secretary of the Board of Trade and editor of the Independ- ent, he gave evidence of unquestionable lite- rary ability. His four pamphlets descriptive of the manufactures, trade and resources of this city and county, have contributed largely to placing Stockton and San Joaquin County in
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