History of San Joaquin County, California : with biographical sketches of leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 141

Author: Tinkham, George H. (George Henry), b. 1849
Publication date: 1923
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1660

USA > California > San Joaquin County > History of San Joaquin County, California : with biographical sketches of leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 141

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Mr. Mobley has been closely associated with his brother, William P. Mobley, a prominent mining man of Calaveras County, where he has operated for the past fifteen years, and the two brothers are still active in locating and proving up on mines in California. For ten years Mr. Mobley managed the large Mobley home ranch, consisting of 1,400 acres, on which he raised large quantities of grain and stock. Mr. Mobley has always used the most mod- ern equipment for plowing, planting and harvesting his great crops of wheat; and since he transferred his activities to his present ranch, he has employed the same up-to-date methods of farming.

In 1911 at Farmington, Cal., Mr. Mobley was united in marriage with Miss Minnie P. Drais, a daughter of Edward M. and Rosa (Grann) Drais, prominent pioneers of San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties. Edward M. Drais was a man of influence in his locality and for a number of years served as trustee of the Home Union school district, Stanislaus County, in his neighborhood, and gave his aid in a most generous manner to all public institutions and causes for the manifest good and advancement of the community. Both are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Mobley are the parents of one son, Willie A.

Five years ago, Mr. Mobley acquired his present ranch of 330 acres, which is a portion of the original homestead of James Dunham. Mr. Mobley is an active member of the local Farm Bureau; he is president of the Farmington Mutual Telephone & Telegraph Association, and in 1922 served as chair- man of the grain committee of the San Joaquin Coun- ty Fair Association. Mr. Mobley has exhibited and received blue ribbons at the county fairs for his fine quality of wheat and oats. As a public-spirited citi- zen, a friend of progress and promoter of general advancement he has long enjoyed the thorough con- fidence of his fellow citizens.

WILLIAM H. KNOWLES .- A man of exception- al ability and experience in the wool industry of Cali- fornia, William H. Knowles is the capable general manager of the Tryon Wool Scouring Plant. This plant consists of a warehouse and scouring depart- ment and covers two and a half city blocks. Here fully sixty per cent of the wool clippings of Cali- fornia, and many more thousands of pounds from British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, the Hawaiian Islands and Old Mexico, are gathered an- nually; these are scoured, cleaned, graded and pre- pared for the markets of the world. William H. Knowles was born in Wansted, England, December 17, 1877, a son of William and Charlotte Ann (Crav- en) Knowles, both natives of England. When our subject was one year old he was brought by his par- ents to the United States, where they first settled in Connecticut; later they removed to Massachusetts where the father has since been identified with the woolen industry and is now one of the officers of the American Woolen Company at Lawrence, Mass. Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Knowles, of whom William H. is the eldest; Albert, Charlotte, Lowrie, Edith, George, John, Clara and Annie are the others. The mother died about fourteen years ago at the family home at North Andover, Mass.

The education of William H. Knowles was ob- tained in the schools of Lowell and Lawrence, Mass. While still a young lad he began to learn the wool industry, running errands during vacation time for the Butler-Robinson Woolen Mills, and at fifteen years of age he entered their employ as a regular worker; during the years of his service with this company he went from one department to another, becoming proficient in all branches of the industry. He then entered the Washington Mills in Lawrence and was put in charge of the spinning and winding department; later he was in the wool department of this concern. He then took charge of the wool sort- ing department for M. T. Stevens & Sons of North Andover, Mass., where he remained for nine years. In 1907 he came to California and soon found a po- sition with the Century Mercantile Company of Berkeley as outside man, buying the wool for this firm, covering his territory with a horse and buggy. When he removed to Stockton he became wool grader and buyer for Mr. Tryon. When the Stockton Woolen Mills failed, Mr. Tryon in connection with Mr. Knowles and others took over the business and Mr. Knowles became secretary and general mana- ger; one year later Mr. Tryon purchased the inter- ests of the other members of the company and Mr. Knowles was retained as general manager.

On December 21, 1910, at Sacramento, Cal., Mr. Knowles was united in marriage with Miss Veda Belle Hull, a native of Kansas, a daughter of O. H. and Nancy M. Hull. O. H. Hull was the senior mem- ber of the firm of Hull & Stewart, dealers in pianos and school supplies in Stockton; previously he engaged in the nursery business in San Joaquin County; later he removed to Oakland and engaged in the real es- tate business until his death. Mrs. Knowles is the third oldest in a family of five children, the others being Herschel, Merril, Sophronia and Leland. Mr. Knowles is a Republican in politics and fraternally he is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of Morning Star Lodge, F. & A. M., and the Sciots of Stockton, and Aahmes Shrine in Oakland, and with

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

his wife is a member of the Eastern Star Lodge of Stockton; he is also a member of Loyalty Court of Amaranth, the Stockton Rotary Club, the Elks, and the Stockton Chamber of Commerce.

MRS. VEDA BELLE HULL KNOWLES .- Prominent among the distinguished women of North- ern California is Mrs. Veda Belle Hull Knowles, the gifted wife of William H. Knowles, of Stockton, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work. With her husband, she is intimately associated with the business progress and social life of Stockton, and her social and patriotic activities have given her a wide acquaintance and celebrity.

Mrs. Knowles was born at Smith Center, Kans., and came with her parents to Stockton when six years old. Her father, Octavius H. Hull, was born at Grafton, W. Va., and grew up in Virginia until his seventeenth year, when he enlisted in Company H, of the 12th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, and served throughout the war, receiving after eighteen months of service an honorable discharge. In May, 1883, he came to California and settled at Stockton and be- came a popular dealer in pianos and organs, and also in school, hall and church furnishing supplies. He was married at New Sharon, Iowa, to Miss Nancy M. Baldwin and died at Oakland, in 1914, age sixty-nine. Mrs. Hull is living at 6027 Telegraph Avenue, Oak- land, which for many years has been the family home. There were five children in their family: Herschel is blind, but is nevertheless very successful as the pro- prietor of an extensive express and storage business at Berkeley; he is a graduate of the Deaf and Dumb Institute in that city. The others are Merril, a car- penter and builder at Madera in Madera County; Veda Belle, of this review; Sophronia, the wife of William H. O. Smith, paint contractor at Oakland; and Leland, who met a tragic death on December 5, 1921, from injuries received when he was kicked by a horse while at work on his extensive grain farm at Farmington. He served for four years in the United States Navy, where his patroitism, courage, manliness, and good fellowship endeared him to all.

Veda Belle Hull grew up in Stockton, where she attended the Stockton high school with the class of 1904. . She was athletic and a great lover of the out-of-doors, and won laurels locally as an eques- trienne. At the same time, she was an apt student of the voice and piano, and excelled in elocution. From childhood she took important parts in dramas, con- certs and public entertainments, and became known outside San Joaquin County. She has never relin- quished interest in her art, and is at present pursuing her studies in elocution under Miss Ella M. Hender- son of Stockton. Mr. and Mrs. Knowles reside at their beautiful home at 401 West Poplar Street, Stock- ton, which has long been a center of the most enjoy- able social functions. She is a member of the Stock- ton Chapter of the Eastern Star, of which she is asso- ciate matron; and a member of Loyalty Court, Order of Amaranth, of Stockton, of which she is the stand- ard-bearer. She is also a member and past president of Rawlins Woman's Relief Corps. For two years she served as vice-president of the. Woman's Relief Corps Home of California, and was on its board of directors for three years, and she was department sen- ior vice-president of the California and Nevada Wo- man's Relief Corps during 1917 and 1918. She organ- ized and mothered the Mary B. Hancock Tent of the

Daughters of Veterans of the Civil War, National Alliance, and was unanimously elected the first presi- dent. In national political affairs, she works as a Republican, her counsel being sought by candidates and party heads.

During the late World War, which called for such heroic endeavor on the part of American women, Mrs. Knowles was very active in Red Cross work. She held the exalted position of General of the Army and Director of the Red Cross, of San Joaquin Chapter, San Joaquin County, and is at the present time one of its directors. Gifted with a beautiful voice, she became a member of the M. E. Church choir, at Stockton, as a high school girl, and later for many years was its soloist and leading soprano. Her inter- est in social and public affairs has never waned. She is prominent as a member of the Historical Associa- tion of San Joaquin County, and is an active worker and a prime favorite in the Philomathean Club of Stockton, a Federated state club of California. For three years she was a member of the Associated Char- ities. Her work in appearing before the California Legislature and the State Board of Control in collab- oration with Mrs. Geraldine Frisbie, president, Mrs. Farwell, secretary, and other active workers for the Woman's Relief Corps Home of California, has borne very good fruit. The corps may now buy its fine home property at Santa Clara, known formerly as the Dr. Osborne Sanitarium, where relief and the best of care is given to daughters and relatives of soldiers of the Civil and other wars. Mrs. Knowles has visited Washington, D. C., in furtherance of the Woman's Relief Corps interests; she has crossed the conti- nent six times, and has attended national conventions at Portland, Ore., Columbus, O, Indianapolis, Ind., Boston, and Los Angeles. In 1920 at Washington, D. C., she had the honor of attending the President's reception given to the diplomatic corps and workers of the various countries allied in the World War. Gracious, kind and generous, she is truly a leader in political, fraternal and social circles.

EVERETT H. WOLF .- A progressive native son, whose advancement has been steady, is Everett H. Wolf, the capable president and general manager of the Stockton Paint Company, located at No. 547 East Main Street. He was born in Stockton, Cal., on August 24, 1888, a son of William and Hermina (Rothenbush) Wolf, both natives of California, and numbered with the pioneers of San Joaquin County. His father was in the grocery business in early days with the Hedges Buck Company; later he was super- intendent of streets at Stockton; after retiring he lived in this city until he passed away, being sur- vived by his widow. The only child was Everett H., who attended school at the Weber, Fremont and El Dorado grammar schools and was graduated from the Stockton high school with the class of 1906. As a boy he worked in the Stockton Paint Company store and after finishing his education entered their employ as a regular. He learned the business thoroughly and worked his way up until he became president and general manager, a position he has filled since 1912. The Stockton Paint Company was established some twenty-five years ago, carrying a general line of paints and doing contract painting. In 1904 they started the manufacture of "Old Mission" paint, which has become very popular throughout the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, Southern Oregon and Ne-

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

vada, the territory covered by their traveling men. The present members of the corporation have owned the business since 1912. Besides the manufacture and selling of their own products, they carry on a retail business and jobbing lines of Eastern goods.

The marriage of Mr. Wolf, at San Francisco, united him with Miss Evelyn Watts, a native of Modesto, Stanislaus County, Cal., and they are the parents of two children, Marjorie Jane and Mary Evelyn. In fra- ternal circles Mr. Wolf is a member of Stockton Lodge No. 218, Elks; of the Anteros Club, the Ro- tary Club of Stockton, the Chamber of Commerce. and Merchants' Association.

JOHN OWEN McKEANY .- Concentrating his activities upon his business affairs, John Owen Mc- Keany has carried forward to successful completion whatever he has undertaken, and today his influence for good is felt in his locality. He was born at Morristown, N. J. on November 5, 1871, a son of Ed. McKeany, a native of Ireland who came to America in 1862. In 1882, the family migrated to Califor- nia, settling in Livermore, Alameda County, where the father founded and conducted the McKeany nurseries and engaged in landscape gardening, which he followed for many years. Disposing of his nur- sery business, Mr. McKeany removed to Oakland, Cal., living in retirement fifteen years prior to his death in 1917.

Coming to California when only nine years old, the greater part of John Owen McKeany's education was obtained in the Livermore school; then for a year and a half he was occupied in learning the blacksmith's trade; later he learned the butcher's trade and for ten years followed that occupation, his retail shop being operated along successful and pro- gressive lines. During the year of 1895, removing to Tracy, he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and was soon promoted to the position of engine foreman of the yards.

The marriage of Mr. McKeany occurred in Stock- ton, Cal., on February 16, 1896, and united him with Mis's Mary Passler Knollenburg, a daughter of Mrs. Mary P. Knollenburg, and a stepdaughter of the late Peter Knollenburg, a sturdy pioneer of San Joaquin County. Mrs. Knollenburg is now eighty-two years old and resides with her daughter in Tracy. Mr. and Mrs. McKeany are the parents of three chil- dren: Lysle married Miss Mary Golden of Missis- sippi and they have two children, Jacqueline and Lysle, Jr. He enlisted in the United States Navy on June 20, 1917, serving as clerk in the department of pharmacy, his service covering a period of twenty . two months. Suffering a severe breakdown he is being cared for in the U. S. Hospital at San Diego, where he is gradually regaining his health. Francis, the second son, married Miss Gladys Quinlin, and they reside in Tracy; Roy attends the University of California where he is a student in the law depart- ment; he was the first president of the high school student body at the West Side Union high school, from which institution he was graduated with the class of 1921; he was popular in all affairs of the school, especially in athletics, and is a member of the Del Rey fraternity house. For the past twenty- two.years, Mr. McKeany has been a member of the Woodmen of the World, and of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen; the family reside at their home at No. 224 West Tenth Street, Tracy.

CHARLES KIMBALL BAILEY .- The pride and strength of any country, its mainstay and support, is the farmer, whose toil produces food for the masses, and without whose labors poverty and ruin would soon come to the nation. The hardy frontiersman of America had much greater tasks before him than the mere tilling of the soil; he had forests to raze, rivers to bridge, roads to make, privations and hard- ships innumerable to endure, yet rarely did he falter in the grand and noble work, the work which meant civilization, progress and prosperity. In the mighty work of rendering the great state of California a fitting place for mankind Charles Kimball Bailey cer- tainly performed his share of the task, and no one was more deserving of praise than he. He passed to his reward in November, 1905, honored and beloved by all who knew him, for his life had been useful and productive of great good to his locality.

Mr. Bailey was born in Andover, Mass., June 9, 1830, a son of Samuel and Prudence (Farmer) Bailey. The father, a Massachusetts farmer, lived to be sev- enty-five, the mother sixty-three years old. Grand- mother Bailey was over eighty years old when she died, and her brother, Jesse Trull, was eighty-five years old. Grandfather Bailey also died at an ad- vanced age. The Bailey, Farmer and Trull families are believed to be long settled in New England. Charles K. went to school more or less until the age of twenty years, but after he reached the age of fourteen he drove a market wagon in spare hours, and when there was no school. His father was a farmer and market gardener, and the son had early opportunity to learn the business. In 1851 he went to work in a grocery store in Lowell, and in June, 1853, he came to California via the Nicaragua route. After one month in San Francisco he went to min- ing at Mokelumne Hill, and followed this business in that section for nearly ten years.

On January 8, 1863, at Mokelumne Hill, Mr. Bailey was married to Miss Mary E. Belknap, born near St. Louis, Mo., March 4, 1846, a daughter of James D. and Rachel (Rhoads) Belknap. James D. Bel- knap brought his family across the plains with ox teams and covered wagons to California in 1850, the journey occupying seven months and eight days. Ar- riving in San Jose, they remained there a short time, then removed to Mokelumne Hill. The mother, a native of Pennsylvania, died four years ago, aged ninety-three years, and Grandmother Barbara Rhoads lived to be 104 years old. In 1863, Mr. Bailey bought 160 acres of land in partnership with C. W. Carpenter. Mr. Carpenter was a native of Vermont, born in 1830, and came West to Cali- fornia in 1852, where he was associated with Mr. Bailey in mining enterprises and later in stockraising, the partnership being maintained until the death of Mr. Carpenter in 1883, aged fifty-seven. Mr. Bailey became an extensive landowner, owning at the time of his death in 1905, 5,360 acres, besides a large number of fine horses and 6,000 sheep. He was survived by his wife and five children and a sister, Mrs. Perrin, residing in Lowell, Mass., aged eighty- seven years.

The five children of Mr. and Mrs. Bailey are as follows: Nettie Orilla, the widow of James A. Louttit; Addie Mabel, Mrs. E. D. Middlekauff; Hattie Maud, wife of Dr. E. A. Arthur; Edward Franklin, and Mamie Ethel. Mr. Bailey was a member, in high standing, of the Mokelumne Hill Lodge, I. O. O. F.

Charles A Bailey

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Bailey

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

In 1917 Mrs. Bailey with five others left Stockton in an automobile for Detroit, Mich, making the journey in fifteen days, a marked contrast to the journey she made seventy-three years before. Mrs. Bailey has retained a portion of the home ranch for herself as long as she lives and the balance has been equally divided among her children. She is still an active member of the Methodist Church at Linden and is alert and interested in all matters pertaining to her locality. Mr. Bailey achieved suc- cess through honorable effort, untiring industry and capable management, and his true nobility of char- acter and deference for the opinions of others gained for him many warm personal friends. Mrs. Bailey is well preserved and does not show the years of pioneering she went through. She reads, sews and works without the aid of glasses and is in good health. A cultured, refined woman of pleasing per- sonality and charm, she still resides on the old Bailey homestead where she went as a young bride over sixty years ago and is held in the highest esteem throughout the county where so many useful years have been spent.

HENRY MOHR .- The good old days of the pion- eer are recalled by the life story of Henry Mohr, the early settler long honored throughout San Joaquin County, and especially so as the founder of Mohr's Landing, known now as Bethany, on the San Joa- quin River. For over a half century he had resided in California and San Joaquin County. He was born in Holstein, Germany, on March 12, 1829 and was bereft of his parents when only nine years of age. A neighboring family cared for him for the next six years, when he went to sea on a German merchant ship and several years were occupied on voyages to the Dutch East Indies, West Indies and other is- lands and countries of the world, sailing a number of times around the Horn and the Cape of Good Hope. Sailing through the Golden Gate in 1851, he determined to give up a seaman's life and locating at Hayward, Alameda County, he made that his home for several years, when he removed to San Joaquin County and secured lands near the river and established the only means of transportation to and from San Francisco there. He established his first home on Union Isle and engaged in raising grain and stock until the winter of 1861-62, the year of the disastrous flood that inundated the island and caused great financial loss to the farmers. With the brave spirit and strong will which characterized his whole life, Mr. Mohr set about to retrieve his lost posses- sions; engaging in the lumber and ferry-boat business on the river, he soon had made up all he lost. In 1868 he acquired the farm near Bethany which has been the home place ever since, and which responded to his excellent farming methods with bounteous crops each season.

In 1873 occurred the marriage of Mr. Mohr to Miss Dorothea Lindemann, a native also of Holstein, Ger- many, born September 29, 1848, who came to Cali- fornia via the Isthmus of Panama, in company with three girl friends, arriving in San Francisco in 1869, and going to Livermore, Alameda County, where a sister, Mrs. Emma Rose, resided. Of the five chil- dren born to Mr. and Mrs. Mohr only one survives, Mary, the wife of William C. Brown, a native of San Joaquin County, a son of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Brown,

prominently and favorably known ranchers of the upper division of Roberts Island; the other children, Henry, Dora, William and George, are deceased. Mohr's Landing was, until the coming of the rail- road in 1869, a most flourishing business center, as the river was the chief means of transportation and the farmers availed themselves of it, and the straight- forward business methods used by Mr. Mohr made him a business man with few equals. He was a stanch Republican and few men in this portion of California were more familiarly or favorably known, and when he passed away on December 16, 1909, the community lost one of its most progressive citizens and a loyal friend to all who were privileged to know him. Mrs. Mohr still lives on the old home place, now conducted by her son-in-law, W. C. Brown.

FRED B. MOORE .- A pioneer resident and a prominent grain farmer of San Joaquin County, Fred B. Moore has been profitably engaged in the ranching industry in the Collegeville district of San Joaquin County for a continuous period of thirty- five years. Many other interests have likewise taken his time and attention, and he is spoken of through- out the county as a public-spirited, genial and up- right man. He was born at Woodbridge, one-half mile east of the Sargent place, March 27, 1863, a son of T. S. Moore, a native of New York who migrated to Grinnell, Iowa, in 1847, and two years later, in 1849 crossed the plains with ox teams to California. T. S. Moore was a butcher and carpenter by trade and for several years after arriving in California he worked at his trade at Coloma. In 1863 he removed to San Joaquin County and farmed near Lodi; the following year, 1864, he purchased a ranch west of Lodi where he farmed for thirteen years, then sold to J. L. Hudson. In 1877 he removed to Washing- ton, then a territory, where he engaged in farming for four years; then returned to San Joaquin County and located at the old Five-Mile House on the Lower Sacramento Road. His last days were spent in Stockton, where he passed away about twenty years ago. Fred B. Moore received a fairly good education at the Lafayette district school and was a young lad when he started at farm work. For the past thirty-five years he has been farming in the Mt. Car- mel and Collegeville district of the county and his perseverance and industry have been well rewarded.

The marriage of Mr. Moore occurred in 1885, and united him with Miss Eliza E. Carey, born on the Carey Road six miles southeast of Stockton, a daugh- ter of the late Wilson Carey, a prominent pioneer and grain and stock farmer of the Mt. Carmel dis- trict. Mr. Moore owns 280 acres of fine wheat land located five miles southeast of Stockton, on which was formerly located the old Six-Mile House on the Mariposa Road. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have one son, Arthur W., born on the old Wilson Carey ranch near Stockton, January 7, 1888. He received his education in the Mt. Carmel school and since he was old enough has helped his father with ranch work. For the past three years he has managed the extensive grain farm. On February 28, 1919, at Stockton, he was married to Miss Laura Cox, born July 28, 1888, in Linden, Cal., a daughter of W. E. Cox, pioneer farmer of Linden. Both father and son believe in the most up-to-date methods of grain

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History of San Joaquin County, California : with biographical sketches of leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 141

Author: Tinkham, George H. (George Henry), b. 1849 Publication date: 1923 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1660

Author: Tinkham, George H. (George Henry), b. 1849
Publication date: 1923
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1660