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 55
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seems to have filled honorably and satisfactorily, according to the testimonials given him by the director of the clinic. At the time of his death he was engaged in the practice of his profes- sion at Stockton.
HARLES BELDING .-- Prominent among the old-time Californians now actively en- gaged in business pursuits in Stockton, stands this gentleman, a native of Hampshire County, Massachusetts. He was born July 12, 1831, his parents being Joshua and Rosetta (Cooley) Belding. His father was at different times a merchant and a farmer, and both parents were born in Massachusetts. They inoved to Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, locating in the Wyoming Valley wlieu Charles lacked about two months of being six years of age. At the age of sixteen years he went to Mauch Chunk, to enter the service of Asa Packer, the great coal and iron magnate, continuing in his employ about three years. Early in 1852 he left New York for California, embarking on the steamer Daniel Webster, crossing the Isthmus by the Nicaragua route from San Juan del Norte to San Juan del Sur, and thence on the steamer Independence to San Francisco, arriving Febru- ary 24, 1852. The next day he stepped off the deck of the Kate Kearny at the Stockton wharf on his way to the mines. After a few months' experience there he went to Tuolumne County, and was at Hawkins' Bar and Oak Springs, until Angust. For several months he sold vege- tables for a faruier, making two or three trips a week to the mining camps, on each of which he would sell a load covering the bottom of a luin- ber wagon for $60 or $70. Coming to Stockton, lie entered the employ of Lippincott & Vauglin, who had started in the business of soda-water manufacturing in July, 1852. The firm of Chase & Co., the first to get started in this line, had commenced business two or three months before, bnt Lippincott & Vauglin would have started even prior to tlrat had not their ma- 24
chinery been nudnly delayed in its voyage around Cape Horn. Mr. Belding remained with that firm much of the time until the spring of 1855; then John B. Vaughn, a younger brother of one of the firm and Mr. Belding bought ont a soda-water factory at Murphy's, and there carried on the business. In October, 1856, Mr. Belding sold out and went East. He returned to Stockton in April of the following year, and bought an interest in the business of his old employers, the firm then becoming Lippincott & Belding. This partnership continued until December, 1870, when Mr. Belding bought ont Mr. Lippincott and has since that time carried on the business alone. Since 1863 lie has also conducted the business of mannfacturing soda water at Marysville.
Notwithstanding his large interests in this line, however, Mr. Belding classifies himself as a farmer, and in that direction he has indeed extensive investments. In his two ranches, lo- cated in San Joaquin and Bntte connties, he has 1,700 acres of splendid valley land, and both places are kept up to the highest standard. They are devoted to wheat as a principal crop, and also to live-stock, in which line he now has about 100 head of horses and colts, all reared by him. They are roadsters of Hambletonian stock and farm horses front Clydesdale and Woodworth stock. He gives his personal at- tention to the management of his ranches, and has been uniformly successful in making them profitable. His farm books are as carefully kept as those of any business honse, and with him farming is no chance affair.
He belongs to San Joaquin Lodge, F. & A. M., and is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He is a Republican politically, and takes a lively interest in affairs of a public nature. In 1878-'79 he was Mayor of Stockton, and for nine years was Public Administrator of this county ; has also been member of the City Council, City Assessor, School Trustee, Trustee of the City Library, etc. He is a man of strict business habits, and holds the highest reputation for honorable and considerate methods.
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
He was married in Calaveras County, April 28, 1859, to Miss Josephine L. Latimer, a na- tive of Michigan, who came to California in 1852, via Nicaragua. Her parents, Daniel and Bethsheba Latimer, both died in this county. Her father for several years carried on an ex- tensive mercantile business at North Branch. Mr. and Mrs. Belding have four children: Wal- ter L .; Juliet, wife of Ralph E. Lane; Laura L., wife of Berkeley W. Moore, and Herbert C.
Mr. Belding's life affords a lesson that should have its effect. He made his own start in the world, and by strictly honorable means achieved success in a degree of which any man might be proud.
OHN KOHLMOOS, proprietor of the In- dependent Restaurant, Stockton, is a native of Germany, born near Verden, Hanover, April 8, 1830, his parents being Jolin and Matta Adelina (Clansen) Kohlmoos, the latter a sister of the great New York brewer, H. Clau- sen. John Kohlinoos, the subject of this sketch, was reared at his native place, and between the ages of six and fourteen received his education. After that he followed wheelwrighting two years, but in 1849 he left his native country and emigrated to America, sailing from Bremen to New York on the barque Caroline. He engaged as clerk with his uncle on the corner of Broome and Forsythe streets. Six months later he was stricken with the cholera and was soon so low with the disease that the doctor gave up hope of saving him. He engaged another phy- sician who pulled him through all right. He remained in New York city until October 5, 1852, when he started for California, taking the steamer Georgia to Aspinwall, thence by rail to Georgia, and from there to Panama by inule- back. He resumed his sea-voyage a couple of days later on the steamer Winfield Scott, landing at San Francisco, November 9, 1852. After about two days he proceeded to Stockton on the steamer Golden Eagle. He had a friend in
Stockton, and together they proceeded on Mex- ican mustangs to Mokelumne Hill. When Mr. Kohlmoos commenced mining there he had two twenty-dollar gold pieces, and when they were gone he quit. He had been working on Chili Gulch, between Mokelumne Hill and San Andreas, and when he found the work there so unprofitable, he went on foot to Mokelumne Hill. The proprietor of a grocery store took him part of the way in a wagon. When within ten miles of this city he stopped to see a mnan who had come out with him and who had a ranch of 160 acres there. He offered Mr. Kohlmoos work at $40 per month and the latter accepted it. He had been working there about two months when he received a call from the grocer who had transported him from Mokel- nmne Hill. After a conversation, Mr. Kohl- moos went with him as far as Mokelumne Hill and was given a situation as clerk in the latter's store at Middle Bar. He remained there a year and then went to San Francisco, having saved up $600 in gold dust from his earnings. He got a situation in an establishment on the corner of Sacramento and Kearny streets, but after a few monthis was offered a better situation on the corner of Sansom and Pine streets. He accepted the offer aud remained at his new place about seven montlis. His employer then stocked a store on the corner of Pacific and Taylor streets and put Mr. Kohlmoos in as manager and part- ner. That was in 1854. About six months after starting in business, he removed to the corner of Broadway and Dupont streets, where he carried on business successfully until 1860. He then embarked in the commission business at 505 Washington street, near Sansome, there being ouly a thin wooden partition between his place and the Auction Lunch, kept by Flood & ()'Brien, the future bonanza kings. He did a successful business there until 1868, when lie was stricken with typhoid fever. During his illness he made up his mind that if he recovered he would go back to Europe and see his old home once more, and informed his wife of his intentions. He recovered after six weeks and
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then mnade ready for the trip. April 1, 1868, Mr. Kohlmoos and wife with their three chil- dren, accompanied by Mr. Koklmoos' young- est brother, left San Francisco on the steamer Golden Age. They arrived at New York in safety, and after a couple of weeks proceeded on their ocean voyage to Bremen, where they arrived May 14, 1868. Mr. Kohlmoos had been gone twenty years and his meeting with the folks at home, including his father and mother (both of whom were then living) was most affecting. Mr. Kohlinoos has had a large oil painting made, commemorating the event, which hangs in his residence in San Francisco. It rep- resents him approaching the door of his old home and birthplace, where stand his parents, relatives and friends to receive him. It is an interesting and artistically made picture. He traveled throughout Europe for pleasure and recreation, and his stay was prolonged to two years and a half on account of the Franco-Prus- sian war. His visit home, however, was marred by one sad event, the death of his inother, which occurred while he was there. Mr. Kohlinoos and family left Bremen for the return trip to Amer- ica in 1870, proceeding to New York, where they remained two weeks. They then came to San Francisco by rail, the great Pacific railroad having been completed during their absence. They arrived at the metropolis of the Pacific coast in November, 1870, and two weeks later Mr. Kohlinoos started in business as proprietor of the old Metropolitan Restaurant, No. 156 Second street, near Howard, in which venture lie was very successful. When he sold out there, in 1879, he was worth between $50,000 and $60,000. He then went to Alameda, bought a lot on Railroad avenue near Second street, and built the Kohlinoos Hotel, one of the finest houses put up in the State outside of San Francisco. Ile conducted the establishment at a heavy loss for four years, and finding it would not go turned over every dollar he had in the world to his creditors, not even keeping a homestead. He came to Stockton to take charge of the Independent Restaurant (whichi
had been run down) on a salary, with the privi- lege of buying. He concluded to buy, finding that a first-class restaurant would pay in Stock- ton, and in nine inonths paid the price agreed upon, $2,800, and had in the meantime put in improvements to the amount of $2,000. His great experience in this line of business, coupled with his tact and skill, have made the Independ- ent Restaurant a success. It has the patronage of the best people, who had long felt the want of such an establishment, under the personal care of such a man as Mr. Kohlmoos, in this city.
Mr. Kohlmoos was married in San Francisco in 1856, to Miss Elizabeth Oster. They have six children living, viz .: Elizabeth, wife of Con- stant Meese, a member of one of the large manufacturing firms of San Francisco, born December 4, 1859; Herman C., born September 2, 1863, with William Wolff & Co., San Fran- cisco; John, born July 26, 1872; Einma, born August 2, 1876; Oleta, born June 15, 1878; and Willer, June 13, 1882. They have lost four sons and two daughters by death.
Mr. Kohlinoos is Past Grand of Harmony Lodge, No. 13, I. O. O. F.
- ATHANIEL A. KNIGHT was born in Caledonia County, Vermont, March 4, 1827, son of Nathaniel and Sarah (Laugh- lin) Knight. Grandfather Langhlin was a Scotchinan by descent, but made his home in Ireland. He was a Lieutenant in the rebellion of the Irish people against the British Govern- ment in 1794. There was a standing reward of £1,000 offered for his head by the British Government. He was in hiding for nine months before he was able to escape to Amer- ica. He settled in Caledonia County, Vermont, where he inade his home for the remainder of his life. Grandfather Knight was of Englishi descent, but was born in America. When abont twenty-two years old he left his native State, New Hampshire, for Ohio, where he
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taught school for two or three years; later he settled in Vermont, where he remained until his death.
Nathaniel, the subject of this sketch, re- mained in Caledonia County, Vermont, till he was past twenty-four years old. His father was a farmer, and raised all his children on a farm, except one, Andrew L. Knight, who at the age of seventeen left the farm and became involved in business in Boston, and for the past fifteen years has been engaged as solicitor for the Bos- ton & Maine Railroad, with which company he has been since the close of the war. When Na- thaniel was abont seventeen years old he began to work out by the month, which he continued for seven years, giving his earnings till he was twenty-one years old to help support the family, which consisted of thirteen children, eight sons and five daughters, of whom two sons have since died. Having laid by a little over $300, earned since his majority, October 15, 1851, he started for California via Nicaragua, by steamer, land- ing in San Francisco on Sunday, November 20, at 9 A. M. After remaining in San Francisco two or three days, he went to Sacramento, where he and twenty-four others hired a team, paying $50, to take them to Hangtown. The wagon carried the baggage, and the men walked most of the way. They arrived in Hangtown after a journey of two days, where they bought tools and went prospecting and mining. May 8 of the following year he and his brother Henry, now of Los Angeles County, who came to this State with him, went to Marysville, thence to Bidwell's Bar, on Feather river, and went up the river about thirty-five miles, pros- pecting. They worked their way down to Big Oregon Bar, on the north fork of the American river, where they worked till about the middle of October; then they worked at a place called Paradise, on the divide between the north and middle forks of the American river, till about January 15. They then returned to Placerville (formerly called Hangtown), where he remained about two years. He next went to Diamond Spring, fenced a plat of land, and went to gar-
dening and fruit-raising, expending about $600 for trees and vines. He was. married in the fall of 1858, to Miss Martha Jane Fuqua, resident of Diamond Spring, a native of Missouri, who has resided in California since 1854.
In 1860 Mr. Knight came to this valley and settled on the place where F. M. Fuqua now lives. At the end of a year he sold his right there and purchased 160 acres, situated just west of his present residence, and which forms a part of his land. His present estate consists of 314 acres. on the north bank of the Mo- kelumne river, in sections 35 and 36, Liberty Township. Most of it is under cultivation, there being about ninety acres on the river that is timber and pasture land. In his farming in- dustry he has, by judicions cultivation, been successful. His crops have never been a failure; the lowest he has raised is ten bushels to an acre, and the highest fifty-six bushels to an acre, this latter for one year only.
Politically he is a Republican. The first Presidential vote he cast was for Martin Van Buren, Free Soil ticket. Then he was a Whig, and later was one of six to organize the Repub- lican club in El Dorado County, California, of which party he has ever since been a consistent member. He has been a member of the Bap- tist church since the fall of 1857, and is now Deacon in the church at Lodi.
Mr. and Mrs. Knight have five children, namely: Olive, wife of W. P. Stricker, resident of Berkeley; K. Loren, Viola, Ira I). and Lida.
DWARD OULLAHAN, a liquor merchant of Stockton, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in the year 1834, a son of Robert and Mary Oullahan. His father, a civil engineer, as well as architect and contractor, was identi- fied with some of the historic engineering works of Ireland, and was recognized throughout the United Kingdom as a very able specialist in his line.
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
The subject of this sketch left his native city, in company with his brother Denis J., for Cali- fornia in 1849, in a vessel in which they owned an interest, bringing as part of the cargo four large iron houses, which, however, proved an unprofitable venture, as they were not salable. Arriving in San Francisco, they located each 160 acres wliere South San Francisco now stands, and raised vegetables and stock. Ed- ward Onllahan came to Stockton in 1853, and went to work with his brother, who had pre- ceded him one year, in the freighting, commis- sion and forwarding business. They did a large business in that line with the southern inines for some years.
Mr. Oullahan afterwards superintended and was interested as a partner in his brother's ranch of 1,000 acres on the Calaveras, near the Smith ranch, and about five miles from this city. Abont 1861 he went into the wholesale liquor business with Mr. McShane, under the firin name and style of McShane & Oullahan, and has been engaged in that line of business with little intermission ever since. Having become somewhat broken in healthı, chiefly through dyspepsia, he went to Ireland in 1868, arriving in Dublin the day after Christmas. He thought he was going home to die, having run down in weight to 116 pounds; but after a sojourn of eleven months he weighed 240 pounds, and returned to Stockton, by steamer to New York, and railroad to this city, His first trip out was around Cape Horn, or rather through the Straits of Magellan, and went back by the Panama ronte. On his return the part- nership with McShane was dissolved, and his firm became Oullahan & Porter, which con- tinned two or three years, then Oullahan & Co., in which his brother was interested. In 1884 Edward was elected City Collector and Harbor Commissioner, which he held one year, and at the expiration of his terin of office he returned to his old business under the style of E. Onlla- han, which continues unchanged to the present time.
Mr. Oullahan was married in Sacramento in
1870, to Miss Ada Callahan, a daughter of Daniel Callahan, proprietor of the Golden Eagle Hotel. She died in 1871, leaving an infant daughter, Kate, who was taken to Ireland at the age of three, by a sister of Mr. Oullahan, in the hope of saving her life, threatened by consump- tion. She died December 28, 1886.
Mr. Oullahan was again married in 1880, in Salt Lake City, to Miss Helena Gorlinski, daugliter of Major Joseph Gorlinski, of that place. Mrs. Oullahan is quite prominent in social circles as a talented musician, vocal and instrumental.
Mr. Oullahian was Captain of the Einmett Guards, of this city, for a few years.
LBERT LITCHFIELD, a farmer of Cas- toria Township, was born in Ohio, in 1825. He went to Illinois in 1837, where he re- inained until 1875, when he crossed the plains for California. He camne with a train of horse teams; they came by team as far as they could, then packed their horses and walked the balance of the way. Arriving at Hangtown, he went to mining for a year. He then went to Shasta County and engaged in teaming. In 1851 he returned to the States, where he remained twenty-five years. He was there married to Delilah Doty, and came with his bride to Cali- fornia, where he purchased a ranch of 425 acres, situated twelve miles from Stockton, on the Durham road. Mr. and Mrs. Litchfield have five children, viz .: Chauncey, Emma, Winfield, Nellie, and Eva, the wife of G. W. Wetherbee, mentioned elsewhere in this volume.
EWIS MORRISON CUTTING, of L. M. Cutting & Son, conveyancers, real-estate and insurance agents of Stockton, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, September 1, 1831, a son of Lewis and Susan Julia ( Morrison) Cut- ting. His father, born in Weston, Massachu -
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
setts, Angust 29, 1804, was a son of John and Cynthia (Warren) Cutting. John Cutting, born in Sudbury, Massachusetts, was a manufacturer of boots and shoes, and in the war of 1812, manufactured soldiers' knapsacks for the Gov- ernment. After his marriage he lived in Wes- ton, on the land inherited by his wife from her great-uncle, General Joseph Warren, who fell at Bunker Hill. Grandfather John Cutting was a deacon in the Congregational Church, but be- came a liberal in religion as are nearly all his direct descendants. He lived to be over eighty years. Great-great-grandfather John Morrison, an emigrant from Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1736, died in Londonderry, New Hampshire, at the remarkable age of 108 years. Jolın Warren, the brother of General Joseph, died in 1806 at an advanced age; and two of his sisters, Anna and Lydia, are known to have reached the age of eighty-two. He was the sixth John and in the fifth generation from John Warren, who with his brothers Richard and Jonathan came to Plymouth on the Mayflower. The first Jolin was settled for a time near Mount Auburn, but afterward established the homestead in Weston still owned by one of his descendants, Marshall Cutting, an uncle of the subject of this sketch.
Lewis Cutting, the father of L. M. Cutting, after receiving the usnal district-school educa- tion, turned his attention to mechanical pursuits and soon became identified with the Hamilton Manufacturing Company of Lowell, Massachu- setts, in 1829, retaining his connection with theni in a responsible capacity for thirty years, meanwhile investing and utilizing many labor- saving devices. Among these the "Stop Mo- tion," used in cotton spinning, proved to be one of the greatest inventions ever produced in that line. He came to California in 1858, and set- tled in San Francisco, where he established with his son Francis, the firmn of Cutting & Co., and the Cutting Packing Co., becoming a pioneer in the canning industry of this State. He in- vented a inachine for packing meat and a new method of soldering cans. He died August 26, 1889, leaving a widow, two sons and a daughter.
Of a genial but retiring nature he disliked dis- play, and " with charity to all and malice toward none," he occupied himself to the last with the fulfillment of his duties as a business man and good citizen, enjoying the respect and confidence of all who knew him.
L. M. Cutting, the subject of this sketch, left liis native city of Lowell, Massachusetts, December 25, 1851, for California. He sailed from New York city January 4, 1852, on the steamer Ohio, and arrived in San Francisco by the Panama route early in February, 1852. His first employment was in a restaurant at $100 a month and found. He remained in that city a few months and then went to the " southern mines," in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties, by way of Stockton. In 1853 he returned to this city and became a clerk in the old hardware house of Paige & Webster, which was then the leading house in that line, remaining in their employ until 1857. He was then placed in charge of the Stanislaus Flouring Mills, at Knight's Ferry. In 1858 he returned to his old place with Paige & Webster, and in 1859 went to work for a hardware firm in this city. On the first of August, 1860, he went to work for the late Captain C. M. Weber, who owned the great Campo Franceses, upon which Stockton is located taking the charge and the management of his business. In August, 1870, he purchased the stock of the Ames Plow Company, and the hardware stock of Joshua Webster, in an ad- joining building. and carried on both lines of business through clerks, under his personal oversight, until January, 1876, when he was compelled to go into bankruptcy through the stringency of the times. The bank of California had failed in August, 1875, and many substan- tial firms, including almost all the hardware dealers on this coast, were forced into bank- ruptcy. Mr. Cutting lost the earnings of twenty-five years of an active and industrious life, amounting to perhaps $70,000. He still remained in the real-estate and insurance busi- ness, and took his son Francis into partnership in July, 1887, and relinquished his charge of
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
the Weber estate in Angust of that year. Mr. Cntting is president of the Citizens' Gas Well Company, a member of the Board of Education, Secretary and one of the Trustees of the Rural Cemetery Association, and was formerly a mem- ber of the Board of Directors of the State Insane Asylum. He lias been a Mason for over thirty years, and has taken the tlrirty-second degree; lie also belongs to the Knights of Honor, the Knights of Pythias, the Odd Fellows, the Pat- riotic Order of tlie Sons of America, the Sons of Liberty, and did belong to the old Union Guards. Mr. L. M. Cutting was married July 1, 1857, to Miss Catherine Sophia Howland, born in Woodstock, Vermont, October 17, 1830, a daughter of John and Maria (Snow) Howland. Her grandfather, James Howland, lived to be ninety-eight and his wife ninety-six. Mr. and Mrs. Cutting are the parents of four living children, all born in Stockton: Lewis Howland, August 1, 1858, educated in the public schools, and brought up in the insurance business in San Francisco, is engaged in Stockton in 1890 as an insurance broker; Grace Julia, born in 1860, is a teacher in Stockton since 1887; Fran- cis, born February 15, 1866, was graduated from the high school in this city, has worked in his father's office since leaving school, and was taken into partnership by him in July, 1887. He was married March 28, 1888, to Miss Helen L. Henderson, born in Stockton June 5, 1867, and has one boy, Lewis Milton, born February 3, 1889; Maria Snow, born in 1868, is finishring her education in Field's Seminary, Oakland, in 1890.
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