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 58
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which he refused, as he thought it would never be worth anything. Although perfectly con- tented with the position he had in 'Frisco, he was persuaded by some friends, who had been to the mines, to go and try his luck at that; so, he left one of the best opportunities he ever had. He worked about two years at mining, then re- turned to 'Frisco. This trip was attended with many hardships as it was at the time of the flood. He returned to his home, via the Isth- mus, arriving in January, 1853, with about $5,000. He went home intending to remain, but in the fall of 1854 he again came to Califor- nia, via the Isthmus. He came direct to Stock- ton and went out to visit an uncle; while there he built a ferry-boat on the Stanislaus river, splitting and hewing the gunwales ont of sugar pine and hauling them to the shore where he built the boat. Later he went again to the mines, remaining till 1859. In 1855 he pur- chased his first farm in company with George Ashley, located in O'Neil Township. From 1859 to 1865 he was principally engaged in teamning and stock-raising. In 1865 he pur- chased land on the Davis road and engaged ex- clusively in farming, which he has followed ever since.
In 1872 he purchased the ranch on which he now resides, located on the Stockton and Wood- bridge road, nine miles from Stockton and four from Woodbridge. Mr. White has made his own way in the world since he was fifteen years of age. Like most other old Californians, he has made plenty of money and spent it as freely. He is to-day the picture of health, and has never taken muchı medicine in his life. To his family he is kind and indulgent. He believes in edu- cating children. His son, A. C. White, is a graduate from the Law School of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Mr. White was married, in 1860, to Miss Malinda A. Williams, a native of Arkansas, who emigrated to California in 1853, at the age of eleven years. They have five children, namely: Adelaide B., deceased in 1875 .; C., Walter B., Merchant B. and Alice M.
Mr. White is a member of Jefferson Lodge,
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I. O. O. F., No. 98, of which he is Past Grand. Politically he is a Democrat. His first vote was cast for Franklin Pierce.
HARLES BARTHMAN, proprietor of the National Soda Works, Stockton, is a na- tive of the city of Hanover, Germany, born March 14, 1842, his parents being Fred- rick Charles and Fredrika (Peltz) Barthman. His father, a merchant, built the first chiccory factory in Hanover.
The subject of this sketch was reared at his native place, and to the age of fourteen years attended school there. He then went to college for over two years at Holtzminden. After completing his education, he served an appren- ticeship to a contractor of Hanover, and then traveled throughout the country, taking in the principal cities. In 1863 he was drawn for service in the army, and became a member of Sec- ond Company, Third Regiment, First Battalion, and was assigned to duty i i the city of Eimbeck. He took part in the Holstein trouble of 1864 and again in the war in 1866, and was then discharged from the Hanoverian army. He then served seven weeks in the Prussian army, as a non-commissioned officer of the Eleventh In- fantry, Grenadier Guard, being stationed at Altona, near Hamburg. Upon leaving the serv- ice of Prussia he emigrated to America, sail- ing from Hamburg to New York. He started a furniture store on the corner of Hudson and Dominick Streets, New York, and carried on business there a little over a year. Then the Vallamosa Springs excitement, in the Blue Mountains of Alabama, broke ont, and he went to the scene and bought land there. He was there about sixteen months, but gave up his interest there on account of trouble about the title. He then went to Memphis, from there to New Orleans, and eventually to Texas, where he followed contracting. He built the first two- story house ever erected in Dallas. Becoming sick in Texas he spent the next three years in
traveling in search of health, going to St. Louis, to Kansas City, and eventually was fortunate enough to get back his health and strength. In 1871 he came to California, locating at San Francisco. Finding the climate there unsuited to him, he traveled for some time, finally locating in Alameda, where he established a soda-water factory. In 1885 he removed his machinery to Stockton and established the National Soda Works, for which he has built up an extensive city and country trade. While at the Bay, he served for seven years in Company C, Second Regiment N. G. C., and was a non-commissioned officer. He was married in San Francisco to Miss Christiana Gauler, a native of Holstein. Mr. Bartlumnan is president of the Stockton Turn-Verein, and is a member of the lodge No. 123, A. O. U. W. He joined the order in 1879 in the lodge No. 5, Alameda, and belongs to the Workmen's Guarantee Fund Association. He also belongs to the Verein-Eintracht.
Mr. Barthman is an enterprising business man, and enjoys the esteem of a large circle of warm personal friends on account of his uni- form courtesy and urbanity.
JOSEPH SPENKER was born March 29, 1834, in Dargun, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, his parents being Maria (Druse) and Joseph Spenker. The father, and also the grandparents of the subject were farmers. The father came to America in 1861 and loca- ted at Toledo, Ohio. In 1864 he went to Ten- nessee, and engaged in the employ of the Government as bridge and breastworks builder: while there he was killed, at the age of sixty- four. The mother died in lier home in Ger- inany in 1860, aged fifty-two. In the family there were nine children, five boys and foar girls, six of whom are living.
Joseph, the subject of this sketch, was raised on a farm, as was his father before him. He came to America in 1854, landing in New York, remained there three days, then spent a
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
few years in traveling, settling at last in Ste- phenson County, Illinois; from there he started for California in 1859, crossing the plains with ox teams, starting April 15, and landing at Murphy's Camp, September 16, same year. He traded his horse for a mining claim, but soon found out that he had been slightly taken in. Accordingly he started for Stockton on foot, but obtained a ride to Stockton: passage money one dollar. For the following five years lie worked for Thomas Yolland by the month, at $20 per month; at the end of the first three months his wages were increased, however. During those five years he purchased land as follows: southwest quater of section 32, 3 north, 6 east, for which he paid $750, and which he still
owns. In the fall of 1864, he had acccumulated sufficient means to go to farming for himself, and has been a constant resident and farmer of that section since that time. He purchased his present liome in 1873, containing 320 acres in Elkhorn Township; he also owns the north half of section 33, township 4 north, range 6 east. He owns 240 acres in Stanislaus County.
Mr. Spenker was married in July 26, 1870, to Miss Anna Schliemann, a native of Holstein, Ger- many, born March 24, 1847. They have two chil- dren, a boy and a girl- Otto and Jessie, both at home. Mr. Spenker came to California with no money, but has earned for himself by industry and economy a good share of this world's comforts. He is a member of Woodbridge Grange, No 84. He has two brothers in Stanislaus County, -John and Fred, and a sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Hansen, who is also a resident of said county.
MMONS RODOLPHUS STOCKWELL, a retired merchant of Stockton, was born in Jamaica, Vermont, December 13, 1814, a son of Emmons and Belinda (Shumway) Stock- well. The father, a native of Leverett, Massa- chusetts, and there married, became a farmer in Vermont, but died in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, aged seventy-three. The mother, a native of
Amherst, also died in Fitchburg, at the age of seventy-one. Grandfather Shumway, the son of a French operative in the Charlestown navy- yard, became a clergyman of the Baptist Church, and was settled in Amherst and afterward moved to Vermont. His wife, a native of Belcher- town, Massachusetts, of Irish parentage, named Gilbert, lived to the age of seventy-six. Both grandfather Shumway and his father also lived to be quite old, but their exact ages are not on record. Grandfather Stockwell was a Scotch emigrant who settled on a farın near Leverett, Massachusetts, and Mrs. Emmons Stockwell had ten children, of whom two died in infancy, and of the others one son died aged eighty-four, an- other son is living in 1890 in his eighty-fourth year, and one daughter in her sixty-seventh year.
E. R. Stockwell was brought up on his fa- ther's farm and educated in the district schools. In young manhood he went to Boston and was a clerk in a dry-goods store two years, and in business some nine years. He was there mar- ried on Thanksgiving day, November 25, 1850, to Miss Charlotte B. Littlefield, born in Ded- ham, Massachusetts, in 1821. Mr. Stockwell left Boston January 27, 1849, for California, by way of Cape Horn, arriving in San Francisco July 23 of that year. He went to mining near Jacksonville, near Woods creek, which empties into the Tuolumne river, and worked there about one year. He then opened a ininer's supply store in Jacksonville, which he sold out after six months and set out for Boston by the Panama route. Returning with his wife by the same route he arrived in San Francisco in May, 1851, and came at once to Stockton. Here they opened a dry-goods and millinery store in July of that year and did a profitable business for nearly three years, when they returned to Boston, where they had left two children with Mrs. Stockwell's mother. They had accumulated $22,000 and intended to remain in Boston. Mrs. Stockwell's mother died before their ar- rival, and after spending a year in that city they concluded to return to this coast. They re
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
inained about one year in San Francisco, and in August, 1855, came to Stockton and Mr. Stock- well became a partner with Mr. Henry Under. hill, to whom he had sold out his business two years before. In 1860 Mr. Underhill sold out his interest to Thomas R. Moseley, son-in-law of Mr. Stockwell, who remained a partner until his death in 1887, when Mr. Stockwell wound up the business and retired, putting all of his means into real estate. He had bought in 1856 for $600 the square he still occupies on the east side of El Dorado street between Acacia and Magnolia, and had built on it, at a cost of $7,000, the twelve-room house, which is still in excellent condition, the shingles laid on in 1856 being still rain-proof in 1890.
Mrs. Stockwell died January 2, 1888, having been the mother of six children, of whom two died in infancy and four grew to maturity- Elizabeth Albina, born in Boston September 14, 1841, came to California with her parents in 1854, was married in this city May 24, 1860, to Thomas R. Moseley, and died November 29, 1885, leaving two sons, Nathaniel S., who died in 1888, a lieutenant in the United States navy, and Andrew L., now of San Francisco, and there married, February 20, 1889, to Miss Nellie Groves. Amos Jerome Stockwell, born in Bos- ton July 28, 1844, enlisted in a cavalry regi- ment at the age of eighteen, and after the war received the position of gauger in San Fran- cisco, where he was accidentally killed February 1, 1875, by being thrown from a carriage. Walter Woodbury Stockwell, whose sketch fol- lows this; Frederick Shuinway Stockwell, born here October 19, 1861, and here inarried Octo- ber 24, 1883, to Miss Josie Young, a native of this city; they have one child, Ernest C, born November 11, 1885. Fred. S. is a clerk with his brother Walter W. in this city.
Mr. E. R. Stockwell has been a member of the Pioneer Society since its organization in this city, and has been a Deacon of the First Baptist Church since 1857. He was married in San Francisco, December 3, 1889, to Mrs. H. M. Hendrickson, the widow of Rev. C. R.
Hendrickson, formerly pastor of the First Baptist Church of Stockton.
WALTER WOODBURY STOCKWELL, the oldest living child of E. R. Stockwell, was born in Stockton January 8, 1860, and was educated in the schools of this city and at the Baptist College, Vacaville. He clerked for his father until May 24, 1888, since which time he has been in business for himself. He was married in this city January 9, 1881, to Miss Amelia Belle Cook, a native of Stockton. Mr. Stock- well is Past President of Stockton Parlor, N. S. G. W., and lias been twice representative to the Grand Parlor. He is Master of the Exchequer of Nemo Lodge, K. of P., and a member of the A. O. F. Mr. Stockwell resides in a home of his own on the square owned by his father.
B. GREEN, a native of New York city, born January 3, 1823, came to California in 1849, being one of the first to mine in California, and also one of the first landholders. He was an industrious, careful inan. He died in 1878, leaving his wife a fine ranch on the Mokelumne river.
Jennie Green, his wife, was born in Bangor, Franklin County, New York State, July 5, 1834, the daughter of Jenison and Mary Dyke (formerly Dickinson). The former died Octo- ber 28, 1873, at the age of eighty-eight; the latter March 27, 1871, at the age of eighty. The subject of this paragraph married J. B. Green October 24, 1866. They had two chil- dren, namely: Della M., now the wife of G. M. Foote, and Ida M. Green.
ARTIN OTT, a farmer of Castoria Town- ship, was born in Germany in 1837. IIe left his native home in 1853 for New York, where he remained a few days and then went to Detroit. Five years later he came across the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco,
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where he remained one year, working around at odd jobs. He then went to the mines at Columbia and Sonora, Tuolumne County, and mined for nine years. At the end of that time he purchased the farm on which he now resides: it contains 200 acres, and is principally devoted to the raising of grain and chiccory, situated about eight miles from Stockton on the east side of the Upper San Joaquin river. He owns, with Charles Dangers, a factory where they man- ufacture the chiccory into an article of mer- chandise; the factory is located two miles further up same river, on land of Dangers' brothers.
Mr. Ott was married in New York city to Miss Marie A. Wille, who was born in Ger- many in 1858. They have five children, viz .: Ottilie, Minnie, Freddie, Emma and Agnes.
B ENEDICK GOOKE, a farmer of Elliott Township, San Joaquin Conuty, was born in Prussia, Germany, January 7, 1828, a son of Lambert Gooke, also a native of Ger- many. When eighteen years old Benedick emi- grated to the United States, landing in New York, where he remained bnt a short time, then went to Boston, Massachusetts. He resided there until 1852, working at his trade (he was a baker). In 1852 he came to California via Cape Horn, landing in San Francisco. From there he went to Stockton, thence to the mines. Not being very successful at mining, he re- turned to Stockton and went to work in the Avenne Hotel. At the end of two years he and a Mr. Lotman bought out the hotel, and ran it for one year. Then until 1859 he was engaged in the restaurant business with H. Bolles. Going to Virginia City, Nevada, in 1864, he engaged in the same business there, and remained until 1870. The next three years he spent in Stockton. In 1873 he bought a ranch of 160 acres, situated on the Mokelumne river, about two miles east of Clements.
Mr. Gooke was married in 1859 to Miss Mary Murphy, a native of Ireland. They have fonr
children, viz .: Mary A., James L., Angusta H. and Lucy A.
D. WATERMAN .- No other educator has been so long or so intimately identi- fied with the schools of Stockton since the commencement of her history as has he with whose name this sketch commences. Mr. Waterman is a native of Kennebec County, Maine, born September 14, 1842. His carly boyhood days were spent in his native county, and then he commenced his education, which was finished at Bowdoin College, where he was graduated in the class of 1861. He had mean- time commenced the profession of an educator, having taught two terms in the intervals be- tween terms of attendance at school. After his graduation he went to Massachusetts, and taught at Mattapoisett one term. In 1862 he entered the service of the Union in defense of the old flag, enlisting in Company I, Third Massachu- setts. He at once went to the front, joining Burnside in North Carolina, and thereafter took part in the movements and battles in that de- partment until discharged. In 1864 he went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he taught in the public schools two years in the grammar depart- ment of the Tenth Ward Grammar School and two years as principal of the Seventeenth Street School. In 1868 he went to Greencastle, Indiana, and there served as city superintendent of schools for two years. From there he came to California, locating in Stockton, where he was appointed assistant in the high school, in which capacity he served one term. The Jeffer- son School was then opened, and he served as its principal during its first term. He then returned to the high school as vice-principal, which position he held until elected to the prin- cipalship, in 1883. Mr. Waterman was the Republican nominee for the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1882, and shared in the general defeat of the party in that year, caused by internal dissensions. As an
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educator Mr. Waterman stands in the front rank, and it is generally conceded that his work in behalf of the public schools of Stockton and more especially the High School, has done more than anything else to give them their present high standing among the schools of California.
Mr. Waterman was married in Indiana to Miss Lizzie Williamson, a native of that State.
He has passed the chairs of Charity Lodge, I. O. O. F .; is a member of the Rawlins Post, G. A. R .; of San Joaquin Lodge, F. & A. M., and of the A. O. U. W.
AMUEL DAVIES WOODS, of the law firm of Louttit, Woods & Levinsky, of Stockton, was born at Mount Pleasant, Maury County, Tennessee, September 19, 1844, a son of Rev. James and Eliza Ann (Williams) Woods. The father, a clergyman of the Pres- byterian church, became identified with the his- tory of that denomination in this community, being familiarly known as the pioneer Presby- terian ininister of Stockton. (See sketch of that church in this volume, chapter XII., and also chapter III.) He died at Winters, Yolo County, October 10, 1886, aged seventy one. The mother, a native of York district, South Carolina, and a daughter of Rev. Aaron Will- iams, also a Presbyterian clergyman, died in Winters, Yolo County, January 3, 1883, in the sixtieth year of her age. Grandfather Woods, a native of Barre, Massachusetts, by occupation a farmer, lived to the age of eighty-five. One James Woods left London for Boston June 18, 1679, by the ship "Thomas and Susan," and it is probable that the family is descended from him. The children of Rev. James Woods are: S. D., the subject of this sketch, and the eldest; Rev. J. L. Woods, pastor of the First Presby- terian church at Carson City, Nevada; Hon. Henry M. Woods, formerly of Tombstone, Ari- zona, and Mrs. F. H. Jones, of San Francisco. Four are deceased,-John, Walter, Charles and
George,-all dying in Stockton, the two latter after reaching manhood.
The subject of this sketch set out for Cali- fornia by sea, around Cape Horn from New York, with his father, in 1849, arriving Janu- ary 12, 1850. Educated in the public schools of California, he read law about three years in the office of Hon. John Satterlee, late Judge of the old Superior Court of San Francisco, and was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of this State in April, 1867. He practiced law in that city as a member of the firm of Blatch- ley & Woods about two years, and afterward without a partner some eight years. He was married in San Francisco in 1872, to Annie Sholl, a native of London, England.
Becoming interested in the mines in 1878, he was engaged in hydraulic mining in Placer County about three years, then in Yuba County for about one year, and then mined for silver and lead in Inyo County, doing fairly well in these ventures, but eventually dropping all in further experimenting and prospecting. After seven years of " lastening to be rich," he resumed the practice of his profession in 1885, at Stock- ton, in partnership with Hon. J. A. Louttit and A. L. Levinsky, under the style of Louttit, Woods & Levinsky, which remains unchanged in 1890.
Mr. Woods is a member of Charity Lodge, I. O. O. F .; is President of the Yosemite Club, and Vice-President of the San Joaquin Valley Society of California Pioneers. He is also a member and Vice-President of the San Joaquin County Board of Trade, and chairman of the Citizens' Executive Committee for the develop- ment and improvement of the city of Stockton and the county of San Joaquin. There is no public work of the city or county that he is not more or less connected with, and might be called the universal chairman of every public enterprise. He is a Republican in politics, and liis services are freely used by the party, as they are by the public generally, for the furtherance of whatever is of good report in this com- inunity. He holds a high place in the respect
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and esteem of his fellow-citizens as a worthy representative of the best type of the legal pro- fession, and is a strictly honorable and public- spirited citizen, whose labor and influence can always be counted on for the promotion of the best interests of Stockton and San Joaquin County.
DWARD THORP, of Elkhorn Township, was born in Hart County, Kentucky, February 20, 1828, his parents being Allen and Permelia A. (Reynolds) Thorp, both natives of Kentucky. The father was a farmer by occupation and died when our subject was quite young. The mother is still living and resides in Henry County, Illinois, aged seventy- eight years.
Edward, the subject of this sketch, removed to Illinois when nine years old, where he resided with his mother and step-father until 1846, when he went to Mexico, remaining two years, then returned to his home. In 1850 he came to California, crossing the plains with horse teams. He followed mining for twenty-two months with moderate success, then returned East via the Isthmus. In 1853 he crossed the plains once more with his family, his wife and one child, for which purpose he had returned. One child died before they left Illinois. On his arrival he went to mining at Cold Spring, where he remained until 1855. He then came down and located the property on which he now resides. It contains 240 acres, situated five miles from Lodi. He now owns about 700 acres of choice farming land, on which he has made all the improvements. Part of their homelike and comfortable residence was built in 1855.
Mr. Thorp was married January 1, 1849, to Miss Elizabeth Henderson, a native of Ohio. They have twelve children living and two deceased, namely : Allen W., born October 22, 1849, and died March 22, 1853; Nicholas, born May 18: 1852; John B., August 17, 1854;
Belle C., March 19, 1856; George J., October 9, 1857; Knox A., February 11, 1859; Eliza A., March 12, 1861, and died December, 12, 1862; Mary E., born April 27, 1863; Jason D., April 15, 1865; Zenas E., December 18, 1866; Sarah J., June 27, 1869; Katie P., May 3, 1871; Thomas H., February 28, 1873; Lulu, October 26, 1875. Mary E. is the wife of T. II. Wat- son; Belle C. is the wife of George Toni and Sarah J. is the wife of George McElroy.
Mr. Thorp farmns 400 acres and rents 300. He has raised all of his large family withont the services of a Chinaman; he has never had one on his place and never worn a shirt done up by them. Ile does a general farming busi- ness, raising hay, grain and siock. He fatteus his hogs on cern every year in the old Illinois style. He also raises plenty of fruit and grapes for family use.
OHN WILSON, a rancher of Douglass Township, San Joaquin County, California, was born in Greene County, Ohio, July 24, 1815, a son of John and Sarah (Mitchell) Wil- son, both born and married in Mifflin Connty, Pennsylvania. They moved to Greene County, Ohio, abont 1810, and from there to Washing- ton County, Indiana, abont 1823. The father, a soldier of the war of 1812, from Ohio, after- ward a farmer, died about 1830, at the age of fifty-two, at his home in Indiana. The mother reached the age of seventy, dying also at the old homestead in Indiana. Grandfather John Wilson, an Irish emigrant, settled in Pennsyl- vania and was there married. He fought in the Revolution, and with his wife lived to an ad- vanced age, both dying early in this century. Grandfather David Mitchell was also an Irish emigrant and a soldier of the Revolution and was married in Pennsylvania. The grandparents Mitchell also reached a good old age.
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