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 75
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Dr. Sargent is a member of the California State Homeopathic Medical Society. He belongs to Morning Star Lodge, F. & A. M., of Stock- ten; to the Lockeford Lodge, I. (). O. F., and is a member and examining surgeon of Nemo Lodge, K. of P., and of Stockton Parlor, N. S. G. W.
He was married in this city, in 1879, to Miss Iddie B. Smith, a native of Kentucky.
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ALEN CANFIELD HYATT, of the firmn of Farrington, Hyatt & Co., recently proprietors of the Stockton Iron Works, was born in Sherbrooke, Lower Canada, Septem- ber 7, 1833, the third of five children (one daughter and fonr sons) of Charles and Lonisa (Wilcox) Hyatt. His father was a native of Sherbrooke and his grandfather a native of the State of New York.
In 1835 his parents removed to Hamilton,
Upper Canada, and in 1837 to the northern part of Cook County, Illinois, where his mother died in 1839, soon after which the family removed to Chicago, and in 1842 left there for Buffalo, New York, from which place he went to Frank- linville, Cattaraugus County, New York, to reside with an uncle, and remained until the spring of 1844, when he returned to Buffalo, where he learned his trade of pattern-making, at the Shepard Iron Works. Had been foreman of the shop about five years when he left to come to this State by the way of the Isthmus of Panama, leaving New York on February 5, 1858, and arriving in San Francisco on the 26th of the same month, and going immediately to the mines of Placer County, near Dutch Flat. Followed mining with varying success in Placer, Plumas, Butte and Yuba connties, until June, 1862, when he went to San Francisco, intend- ing to go to the Salmon river mines in eastern Oregon, but was induced to come to Stockton, to help make the patterns for the engines of the steamer Esmeralda, then building at the Globe Foundry of Keep & Briggs. He remained there until the spring of 1868, when he, with H. L. and H. S. Farrington, formed the partnership of Farrington, Hyatt & Co., and built the Stockton Iron Works on California street. There they conducted a general foundry and machine busi- ness until April 1, 1889, when they leased the plant to Messrs. Tretheway, Earle and Dasher. Mr. Hyatt was elected mayor on the Republican ticket in 1879 and re-elected in 1880. He joined Protection Hook & Ladder Company, No. 1, of the old volunteer fire department, in 1862, and remained a member until it was disbanded upon the organization of the present paid depart- ment. He joined Charity Lodge, No. 6, I. O. O. F., as a " non-affiliate," in 1862, and is still an active member, being one of the trustees of that lodge, and has been President of the Odd Fellows' Hall Association for the last thirteen years. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias, being a charter member of Centennial Lodge. He was one of the first company organized here for the purpose of bor-
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ing for natural gas, and upon the incorporation of the Stockton Natural Gas Company he was elected President, which position he still holds. He is Vice-President of the Stockton Insurance and Real Estate Association, a director and chairman of the executive committee of the Alta Fire Insurance Company of California, and a director of the Farmers & Merchants' Bank. In 1882 he married Miss J. C. Lando, a native of Essex County, New York.
RAVEM BROTHERS, proprietors of the Stockton Home Bakery, corner of Aurora and Lindsay streets, have built up one of the leading bakery trades of this city in a very short space of time. The Stockton Home Bakery was started by Charles Pexler in 1883, who did not succeed and sold out. The bakery was afterward carried on by different parties of which none seemed to have any success, and O. L. and M. L. Gravem have carried on the business since May 12, 1887, under the firm name of Gravem Brothers. When they took charge of the establishment, one barrel of flour per day was found amply sufficient to supply the custom, but so vast has been the increase in their trade that now they average three barrels every day. They find their principal demand coming from private families, though they also supply restaurants, hotels and stores to some extent. When they commenced their combined capital was only $900, and they only leased the premises. A year later they bought the lot, improvements and fixtures for $3,036. They have put in about sixteen hours per day apiece, and as the result of their industry have cleared abont $7,000 in two years. Neither one under- stood the baker's trade when they took the con- cern, but O. L. Gravem, by constant application, mastered it in five months, so that now their home-made bread and other articles of mannfact- ure have a popularity second to none. As these two young men, coming here entire strangers, have made such commendable prog-
ress in such a brief space of time, a short sketch of their early career will be of general interest in this connection.
O. L. Gravem was born November 12, 1863, and M. L. Gravem, June 29, 1865. They are natives of central Norway, their parents being L. G. and A. O. Gravem. The father had $80 when he was inarried; has raised nine children and has yet a nice farm and a little money. Both were reared at their native place, and attended school there, and when O. L. was sixteen years of age he went to Vardo, northern Norway, a distance of about 900 miles from home. This being his first experience in life, and he, being young and a stranger and having no friends to consult, he had some difficulty in obtaining work. One day, after having looked around for a month for work, a policeman overtook him on the street, and, tapping him on the shoulder, said, " Yonng man, who are you? I have seen you several times on the street: do you want a job?" Mr. Gravem replied, " Yes, sir." " Well," said the policeman, " Mr. Brodtkorb wants a bartender; good pay; but he wants a man who does not drink or become intoxicated." At that moment Mr. Gravem thought of what his father had said to him with tears in his eyes when he left home, namely, " Whatever you do, my son, do not drink to excess." Mr. Gravem said, " I do not know how to mix drinks, but think I could soon learn, and I will let you or Mr. Brodtkorb know to-morrow." As his inoney was almost gone, and as he could see nothing else to do, Mr. Gravem accepted the position as barkeeper. He was always fearing that he might become a drunkard, as he was only sixteen years of age and his self-confidence was not very strong. He attended the bar nine months; and the first six months he can swear that he did not drink a drop of intoxicating liquors. Nine months later he began to clerk in a dry-goods and grocery store, where he worked twelve months. and then went to Chris- tiansand, where his brother, G. Graven, lived, and attended college for two years, his studies being English, German, French, history, mathe-
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
matics, geography and religion; but he had at length to quit on account of over-study.
Two or three months after leaving college le said to his brother, M. L. Gravem, one day," " Let ns go to America." The proposition was favorably received, and three weeks later they were on their way to the New World. Taking steamer at Christiansand for Hull, England, they went by rail to Liverpool, and after waiting five days there they took a steamer for Phila- delphia. It was a poor vessel, and loaded with 1,400 or 1,500 passengers, and it required four- teen days to reach Philadelphia. One night, during a terrible storm, the main-mast was broken by a wave, and one of the deck lands was washed overboard. A great many on board gave up all hope of ever seeing land; but they all arrived in Philadelphia, and Mr. Gravem and his party were soon on their way by rail to Dallas, Texas. Arrived there, they went to work on the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, and soon began boarding with a Swedish family, the head of the house being the section foreman. The weather was intolerably hot, especially for railroad work. They could scarcely speak English, and it was therefore with difficulty that they could get along. Soon, however, they picked up the names of tools, and that knowledge helped them to obtain work. They were soon out of a job two weeks later, and they started out on a " tramp " to hunt another. Becoming hungry at noon, they stopped at a farm-house and asked the landlady if they could have something to eat, showing money to pay for it; but she snappishly replied, " I am not going to get any dinner to-day." Mr. Gravem, notwithstanding he did not wish any one ların, especially a woman, thought to himself, " If there is such a place as hell, I think that such a one deserves a small portion of it." Mr. Gravem and his friend walked away withont saying a word, and about four o'clock in the afternoon they reached Wills Point, where they stopped two or three days.
A party came in from the country and desired thein to go to work hoeing cotton. They accepted the offer and worked about two weeks,
but found the place a repulsive one. The head of the family was drunk all of the time, they had nothing to eat, the beds were full of vermin, there were flies enough to start a manufactory, and mosquitoes and other flying insects were in clouds, etc. The men left there, intending to go to a Norwegian settlement called Norway, about twenty-five miles southeast of Wills Point. Finding their baggage too heavy to carry, they concluded to take it to Wills Point, leave it there and send for it afterward; but on arriving at that place they concluded to remain there until they could get the money that was coming to them, including their pay from the railroad, which they would get when the pay-car came along. They obtained their pay from the rail- road in three weeks, which time they improved by splitting wood for a fellow-countryman. The paymaster asked O. L. Gravem whether he desired to work on the road, and he replied that he did, notwithstanding the terrible heat then prevailing. About two days later he sent for his brother, M. L., and they together worked on the road there for three or four months. His brother was small, young and boyish-looking, and the section-boss did not think that he was able to do a man's work; nevertheless he gave him a trial and he was found to be satisfactory.
The brothers then came to California, coming direct to Stockton, with about $6.50 apiece. A few days afterward M. L. was employed by Charles Mosier, and O. L. entered the employ of Frank Davis at his ranch on the Cherokee road six miles from Stockton. Shortly afterward he worked five or six months at the Pacific Roll- ing Mills in San Francisco; and then on various ranches until he entered the bakery business. Meanwhile M. L. Gravem was also in various situations, and he came to Stockton and became driver for C. Sprague, proprietor of the Stock- ton Home Bakery, and soon afterward he bought him out; and this is the origin of the present enterprise described in the first portion of this sketch. The Gravem brothers are model young business men, and are deserving of much credit for their energy and pluck.
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
Both of the brothers are members of Charity Lodge. No. 6, I. O. O. F., and also of the Covenant Mutual Benefit Association, with all insurance policy of $5,000 apiece. G. L. Gravem is a commission merchant at Christiansand, Norway, and has a wife and three children. Still another brother, Knute Gravem, is travel- ing extensively for knowledge and pleasure throughout the continent of Europe and Great Britain, and is now in Germany .. The youngest brother, K. L., graduated in 1889 at the high school in his home village.
EORGE ALLEN ATHERTON, City Sur- veyor of Stockton and County Surveyor of San Joaquin County, California, was born November 14, 1860, a son of John William and Ellen (Osgood) Atherton, both living in Marin County. His father, Jolin W. Atherton, born in Maine about 1833, was a seafaring man some five years, rising to the position of mate in the the merchant marine. He settled in California in 1858, where his wife, also a native of Maine, joined him in 1859, coming to this coast by way of Panama. Settling in Marin County, Mr. Atherton carried on a dairy business and also some general farming, witlı San Francisco near at hand as a market. He filled the office of County Supervisor for more than twelve years, and was the Representative of his district in the State Legislature for two terms, being elected on the Republican ticket. Mr. and Mrs. Atlı- erton, senior, are the parents of two sons and two danghters, of whom the subject of this sketch and his sister Hattie, by marriage Mrs. Hyland E. Barber, are residents of this city.
G. A. Atherton was educated first in a dis- trict school in his native county and afterward in the University of California, where he took a full course in civil engineering, and from which he graduated in the class of 1880. His first employment after leaving the university was with the Oregon Navigation Company, and afterward with the Northern Pacific Railroad
Company, as a surveyor. After three years' service with that corporation he came to this city in 1884, and was appointed Deputy City and county surveyor. He was chosen city surveyor by the city council in the spring of 1886, and in the fall of the same year was elected county surveyor, and in due time re-elected for a second term, closing December 31, 1890.
Mr. G. A. Atherton was married in this city, September 22, 1887, to Miss Hattie Weller, born in Stockton in 1864, a daughter of the late George E. and Mattie (Saunders) Weller. Mr. and Mrs. Atherton have one child, Edith, born March 17, 1889. Mr. Atherton is a member of Truth Lodge, No. 55, I. O. O. F .; of Stockton Parlor, No. 7, N. S. G. W .; of Stockton Lodge, No. 23, A. O. U. W .; and of Willow Lodge, No. 55, K. of P.
EVI NICEWONGER, a farmer of Casto- ria Township, was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, September 1, 1831. His father, Joseplı Nicewonger, died in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, about 1870; but his mother, nee Margaret Hull, is yet living, in this county. The subject's grandfather was a native of Germany.
When a youth, Mr. Nicewonger followed teaming to Pittsburg. . In 1853 he came to California, by way of Laramie and Salt Lake, and on arriving here engaged in teaming for W. L. Overhiser, and next for Mr. Rogers nearly a year, and then located upon a piece of good ground. In the fall of 1857 he located where he now resides. At first he pre-empted 160 acres, and now there are 1,000 acres on the home place and opposite; he has a half-section three miles west, upon which there are good improvements. For the first few years after lo- cating here he chopped wood. In 1882 he was elected a member of the County Board of Super- visors, and was serving as such when the pres- ent magnificent new court-house was completed and undertaken; indeed he has been prominent in all public affairs of the county.
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
He married Miss Mary E. Henry, a daughter of Judge Henry, of Mendocino County, who came to this State in 1857. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Nicewonger are: Margaret Jo- sephine, George C., Charles II., Laura L., Oli- via, Elizabetlı, Levi, Jr., Mand, Effie, Lela and Bertha D.
ILLIAM HART, a farmer of this county, residing in Stockton, was born near New Lisbon, Ohio, January 6, 1826, a son of William and Elizabeth (Smitlı) Hart. Both parents died about 1830, leaving fonr sons who grew to maturity: John born about 1822, living in Arkansas; Hiram, born in 1824, de- ceased in Indiana in 1863; Richard A., born in 1828, died in Arkansas in 1883; and the sub- ject of this sketch. He was raised by his grand- father Hart, a resident of Columbiana County, who moved to Indiana in 1832. In that State William Hart received good schooling and was brought np to farming, which has been his chiet pursuit ever since. Mr. Hart came to California in 1852 across the plains, reaching Placerville July 12, where he mined a few months, when he went to work as clerk in a grocery store. He again tried mining in the spring of 1853, in Weaverville, and a second time in Placerville, but his three brief experiments in mining were alike unsatisfactory. His next employment was on tlie construction of a reservoir at Mokel- minne Hill, at one hundred dollars a month, from June to November, 1853. Here again he was unfortunate, the contractor having failed, owing Mr. Hart $400, which was never paid. Late in that year he came to thiis connty and began farming on 160 acres. In 1855 he located 160 acres near Woodbridge, on which he raised barley, finding a market at good prices by haul- ing to the mines. Several years later he bought another quarter-section and has farmed the 320 acres to this time, residing thereon until 1882, when he moved to this city. He still gives personal oversight to the working of the
ranch and his career has been simply that of a farmer.
Mr. Hart was married in Volcano, Amador County, in 1858, to Miss Mary Jane Turner, born in Missouri in 1832, a danghter of Elias and Kezialı (Barker) Turner. The father born in Massachusetts, left Missouri in 1837, one of a party who proposed to take up land in Texas. With another member of the party, a Mr. Mc- Farland, he proceeded ahead of the main body. Both were killed and their horses ridden off by two footpads named Quarles and Carson. For that crime Quarles was hung September 28, 1838, about one year after the murder.
The mother, born in Tennessee, March 3, 1803, came to California by the Panama route in 1853, her daughter, now Mrs. Hart, coming the same year across the plains. The mother died in November, 1881; her daughter, Eliza- beth Turner, by marriage Mrs. Silas H. Axtell of Woodbridge, died in that city Jannary 1, 1882, aged fifty-eight years. Grandfather John Barker, a resident of Tennessee, was over eighty at his death, and his wife also lived to an ad- vanced age. Mr. and Mrs. Hart have six living children: William Eugene, Edward Ba- ker, Charles B., Laura Etta, Hiram Henry, Libbie Eugenia. Mr. Hart has been a member of the Masonic brotherhood since 1850, having joined Darlington Lodge, No. 113, in Mont- gomery County, Indiana. He is a charter member of Woodbridge Lodge, No. 131, F. & A. M., and the two oldest sons are also mein bers of that lodge.
ESTLEY PEARSON HUNT CAMP- BELL, a rancher of Dent Township, residing in Stockton, was born in Tren- ton, New Jersey, October 3, 1825, a son of John Rumfield and Ann (Foster) Campbell. The mother, born January 16, 1786, was married in Burlington, New Jersey, December 25, 1806, and died December 31, 1827. The father, born June 7, 1785, was a tanner and currier, and also
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
the owner of the first pottery in Trenton, New Jersey. Soon after the death of his wife he inoved to Blue Ball, New Jersey, where he was married to a second wife and carried on a pot- tery He also lived there, at what was called Middletown Point, New Jersey, about thirty miles from New York city, where he carried on a hotel and pottery until his death January 16, 1834. Grandfather Andrew Campbell was born April 11, 1747, in Angushire, Scotland. A member of the historic family of that name, after some political trouble or rebellion, escaped to America, settling in Maryland. He fought in the Revolutionary war in the Colonial army, and lived to an advanced age.
W. P. H. Campbell received some schooling for a few years before the death of his father, and after that event for one year in Alton, Illi- nois, whither he had been taken by the kind- ness of an older brother, John A., who settled in that neighborhood. This brother, born Jan- nary 14, 1812, had learned the trade of potter with his father, moved to southern Illinois after his marriage and became a farmer, and eventually a minister of the Methodist Episco pal church. In 1838 the subject of our sketch went to work as helper on a farm near Bunker Hill, Illinois, continuing a few years in that la- bor, when he changed his employment to steam- boating on the rivers Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri. Thus occupied a few years more, he went to St. Louis about 1843 to learn the trade of carriage-smith. In 1847 he engaged as team- ster in the quartermaster department of the army, and served in that capacity during the Mexican war. He is not technically a veteran of that war, though he and his civilian com- rades did some military service in protecting their supply trains, and were often exposed to the dangers of war, the enemy being less con- siderate in the treatment of such guards than of the regular troops. Returning in 1848, Mr. Campbell went to work at his trade in Provi- dence, Boone County. Missouri, and at the same time lie assisted his brother Andrew, thie in- ventor of a machine for making pill-boxes, ent-
ting them out of the solid wood, at the rate of twenty-five a minute, at Providence, Missouri. (For a sketch of Andrew Campbell, since becoin - ing celebrated as the inventor of the printing press known by his name, see Cyclopedia of Ameri- can Biography.) From Providence W. P. H. Campbell returned to St. Louis, working at his trade in that city for a time and then in Troy, Illinois, and again at St. Louis. Here he once more hired as a teamster in a supply train from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe, which reached the Kansas river, but was ordered back by the military. Again, in St. Louis, he opened a shop on liis own account, in partnership with another, but the venture proved short-lived, and he went to Linneus, Missouri, in 1852, and was for a while a partner with his brother Andrew under the style of Campbell Brothers.
He was there married, October 23, 1852, to Miss Mary A. Ogan, a native of Boone County, Missouri, a daughter of John M. and Lucy (Harris) Ogan. The mother, a native of Ken- tucky, died in 1877, in her sixty-ninth year; the father, a native of Boone County, Missouri, is living in southern Oregon at the age of seventy-eight. Grandfather John Ogan died in middle life, and his wife, Mary (Douglass) Ogan, was over sixty. They had five sons and three daughters who grew to maturity, several of whom lived to be seventy or more. Grandmother Anna (Garland) Harris, died about middle age, but her husband, Higginson Harris, lived to be ninety-two.
Mr. Campbell, with his wife, her parents and others, left Missouri for California, April 14, 1853, coming across the plains and settling in San Jose valley. There he worked at his trade for a time and took up some land. In 1862 he bought land near Warm Springs, Alameda County, and went to farming. In 1864 he came to this county and bought the Lone Tree House, withi 200 acres, on the road of that name in Dent Township, and afterward 120 acres adjoining. He conducted the hotel until early in the '70's, and the ranch until December 10, 1883, when he moved to this city.
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
Mr. and Mrs. Campbell have five living children: Annie, born October 11, 1853, was married to Oscar E. Wright, now of Farming- ton, July 3, 1873. Mary Frances, born No- vember 9, 1855, married September 7, 1870, James Gardenslire, has two children (Thomas and Mattie Gardenshire) and was again married, in 1889, to Henry Schaffer, of this city. John Westley, born December 15, 1857, now a farmer of Stanislaus County, residing about six miles from Oakdale, married Miss Sarah Grider, No- vember 1, 1882, and has three children: Win- field, Clarence A., and Cora C. Amanda, born March 6, 1860, married May 1, 1879, Jolın C. Grider, a native of Nevada, but now of this city. Alfred, born February 13, 1862, married Octo- ber 27, 1886, Miss Mand Thompson, a native of this State, now residing on the Lone Tree ranch, and has one child-Lela.
CLAPP, a farmer of Castoria Township, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, March 12, 1824. His parents, Salmon and Eleanor (Newcomb) Clapp, were also natives of the Bay State. The original American family of this name came over in the May- flower. Mr. Salmon Clapp was a stone quarry- man and vessel owner, built wharves in Boston, and died in 1836. In 1838 the subject of this sketch went to Quincy, Massachusetts, and learned the printers' trade in the Passage office; when his brother Charles started the Quincy Aurora, he went with him. In 1849 he came to California, leaving Boston, November 4, on the schooner Lamartine, touching at Rio Jan- eiro and Valparaiso, arriving at San Francisco at the end of 145 days, with a party of six friends. They at once built a small boat ont of the lumber which they could manage to gather up upon the wharves, and in this they went to Sacramento, the trip taking two days. A few days afterward Mr. Clapp went to Sonora, Tuol- umne County, and was engaged there and at Poverty Hill and Jamestown five years in min-
ing, being very successful. He then went into the butcher business at Poverty Hill. Two years later he thought he would return East, but getting within about two miles of where he now lives, he stopped there and engaged in chopping wood and hanling it to Stockton. After that lie located on 160 acres of land where he now resides, to which he has since added by pur- chase until he now has 1,600 acres. He has also bought the property where lie tied his boat when he first came to Stockton, and his brother Noah now lives there. He now devotes his time mnostly to raising grain, but was for- inerly quite extensively engaged in cattle and sheep raising. He has long been a member of the San Joaquin Society of California Pioneers.
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