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 198

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 198

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After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Serventi resid- ed in San Francisco, until 1905, during which time Mr. Serventi continued at florist work. In 1905 he came to Stockton and soon afterwards engaged in the grocery business in which he was success- ful, continuing for a period of seven years, when he sold out because his great love for flowers and the florist's art called him back into the business of his delight. He established the California Flower Company, building up a splendid business at 9 North California near Main Street, until he had the leading business of the kind in the city. How- ever he was not permitted to enjoy the fruits of his labors for he was called by death July 27, 1921, when only forty-three years of age.

Coming to America as a poor boy, he became successful solely through his own efforts and at the time of his death was the owner of valuable prop- erty in the south part of the city, including seven houses. Since her husband's death Mrs. Serventi continues to make her home here and looks after the interests left by her husband. Mr. and Mrs. Serventi became the parents of one daughter, Laura, who attends St. Agnes College. Mr. Serventi was a member of the Red Men, the Eagles, Loyal Or- der of Moose and the Foresters of America.

Angelo Serventi

Margherita Serventi.

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

GEORGE R. McLEOD .- A citizen of outstanding influence and activity, George R. McLeod is one of the best known grain experts in the state of Califor- nia, his experience extending over a period of twenty years, until recently serving in the capacity of buyer and superintendent in charge of the agricultural de- partment of the Sperry Flour Company of Stockton. Experiments conducted under his supervision as man- ager of this department of that company have prob- ably done more in developing the grades of wheat in the state than the efforts of any other man.

Mr. McLeod was born in the Montezuma Hills, Solano County, Cal., on a ranch, and at the age of twelve years was driving a team and following a plow on his father's ranch. For twelve years he engaged in farming at home; then became wool buyer for the Koshland Company of San Francisco. At the age of twenty-eight he entered the grain buying field and became associated with the exporting and im- porting firm of Erlanger & Gallinger, traveling throughout California, Oregon, and a number of trips were made to Australia in the interests of the company. In the fall of 1906, he located in Oakdale, Stanislaus County, and for four years was associated with the Oakdale Milling Company; thence to Stock- ton with the Frank A. Guernsey Company, and the Dickinson Grain Company, and in 1912 he assumed charge of the new feed plant, the latest unit of the Sperry Flour Company in Stockton, this plant being the largest feed plant west of the Mississippi River. For the past six years he has had charge of the big Sperry Flour ranch near Farmington, and the ranch in the South San Joaquin irrigation district. On these ranches experiments which have resulted in many crop improvements have been carried on. Dur- ing the years of 1914-15 he was put in charge of the campaign to increase the corn acreage in the state, promoted by the Sperry Flour Company. Not only has Mr. McLeod's ability been shown in his many experiments in soils, cultivation, feeding and cropping, but in the management of big campaigns, he has been most successful. This campaign was to increase the supply of corn, so that California could meet the de- mand without importing from the East. Most grati- fying results were obtained, so that now enough corn is raised in the state to supply the demand and from one to two million of dollars saved yearly and kept at home, which formerly went east to buy the product. In 1918 he was the active manager of a state-wide "grow more wheat" campaign, conducted by the Sperry Flour Company. Thirty-five varieties of wheat were experimented with and from them two varieties were found superior to any grown in the state; they were of an earlier variety, of a better quality and produced more bushels to the acre. These wheat experiments were carried on from year to year until the early maturing wheat now in general use resulted, and today there are about 176,000 acres grown in California. This campaign attracted the attention of all wheat growing districts of the United States and many letters came to the company re- questing information, not only from individuals but from universities and colleges.

Early in March of 1922 the announcement was received by the Stockton Chamber of Commerce from Maj. L. T. Grant, director of the twelfth district United States Veterans bureau, to the effect that Mr. McLeod had been appointed managing superin-

tendent of the United States Veterans agricultural training school now being established on Lindley farm, Rough and Ready Island. The appointment by Major Grant was made upon the recommendation of a committee representing the Stockton Chamber of Commerce appointed, at his request, for that pur- pose. In the selection of Mr. McLeod the committee feels that one of the most practical men with wide experience in San Joaquin County farming problems and a man of real executive and initiative ability has been secured. The duties of Mr. McLeod as super- intending manager will be to actively superintend all activities on the 1,170 acre farm and to see that the trainees at the big school are given practical and worth while experience. Mr. McLeod assumed charge March 7, 1923. There are now sixty-eight students who came here who were found adapted to agricul- tural life and are now located on their own farms.

JOSEPH M. CHIRHART .- Among the leading contractors of San Joaquin County may be found Joseph M. Chirhart, and he is credited with many of the best buildings in the city and county. Born on a farm in St. Joseph County, Ind., October 5, 1874, he attended the district schools and was later sent to Notre Dame College in South Bend, where he re- mained until eighteen years of age. He then took up the trade of carpenter with Barney Hertzel, a building contractor of South Bend; later a partnership was formed with Louis Hickey, and for one year they did a general contracting business; the partnership was then dissolved and Mr. Chirhart continued alone for three years. He then entered the employ of Herring & Son, contractors, and served as foreman of con- struction on many of the largest buildings in South Bend, remaining with them until 1906 when he was employed by the Santa Fe Railroad Company to con- struct and install their block signal system along their line through Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico. The following year he started for California and upon arriving in Stockton was obliged to transfer from the Santa Fe to the Southern Pacific in order to complete his journey to San Francisco on account of the floods in the San Joaquin Valley. His arrival in San Fran- cisco was timely, for that city had been laid waste by the disastrous earthquake and fire of 1906. His first work was on a hotel at the corner of Turk and Taylor streets, next on St. Mark's Hotel in Oakland, for Lundgreen & Hicks, and then he went to Agnew as foreman of carpenter work on the rebuilding of the state hospital, which had been completely wrecked by the earthquake of 1906; two years later he was employed on the new receiving building at the state hospital in Stockton.

About this time a partnership was formed in Stock- ton with C. J. Nystedt, under the firm name of Chir- hart and Nystedt, and among the more outstanding buildings of their construction are the following: the Aetna Apartments, the Embery flats, the watercure building at Clark's Sanitarium, the Bennett flats at Sutter and Poplar streets, the Catholic Church at Lodi, the Science building of the Stockton high school, completion of work on the Jefferson school building, remodeling the Lincoln school, erection of two buildings for the Standard Oil Company, and the concrete work on the City Bank building. During 1916, the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Chirhart continued his contracting business alone. He did the carpenter work on the Georges Building, erected the

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

new Stockton Mineral Baths, a fine piece of concrete work, built the high schools at Hughson, and at Den- air, Stanislaus County, and the grammar school at Woodbridge. In the spring of 1922 Mr. Chirhart removed with his family to Lodi, and since then has built the St. Ann's Academy, Lodi; remodeled the Franklin school at Franklin, as well as erecting build- ings at Isleton, Sacramento County.

The marriage of Mr. Chirhart united him with Miss Mabel Holeman, born at Wallace, Calaveras County, Cal., and they are the parents of two daughters, Frances Leverne and Vivian Josephine. Mr. Chirhart is a member of the Knights of Columbus at Stockton.

LAWRENCE EDWARDS .- A distinguished at- torney who has added lustre to the San Joaquin County . Bar, is Lawrence Edwards, junior member of the well-known law-firm of Messrs. Tye & Ed- wards, at Stockton. He was born at Los Angeles on May 12, 1887, the son of Robert L. and Clarissa (Smith) Edwards and grandson of ex-Governor Ed- wards of Missouri, early settlers in the San Joa- quin Valley. The father served a term as public administrator of San Joaquin County and is now farming near Linden. Lawrence Edwards was reared in Stockton, where he attended the public schools and then entered the Polytechnic high school, San Francisco, from which he was gradu- ated in the class of 1905. After spending one year at St. Mary's College, in Oakland, he took up the study of law in Hastings Law School and gradu- ated with the class of '12, when he received the L. L. B. degree.

The same year he opened a law office in Stock- ton, and in 1915 he was elected, on the Democratic ticket, assemblyman of the State Legislature, and he was re-elected in 1917. He introduced and put through the bill for the erection of the State Armory, on North California street, Stockton, the only one, by the way, to be built in California in recent years. He also worked for the improvements in the reclamation and irrigation districts, particu- larly in the Delta section, thus making a very good legislative record; and when the World War called for the assistance of the Americans, he was at- tached to the 91st Division at Camp Lewis, in the officers' training school, and later was transferred to Camp Taylor, Ky. He received his commission as second lieutenant and was assigned to the 71st Field Artillery, 11th Division, at Camp Knox, Ken- tucky. Shortly after he had received his commis- sion, the armistice was signed.

Lieutenant Edwards then returned to Stockton; and in 1919 he formed a partnership with Hugh J. Tye, under the firm name of Tye & Edwards. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Pres- ton State School, at Ione; belongs to Stockton Par- lor No. 7, of the N. S. G. W .; and is a member of the Anteros Club, the Yosemite Club, the Stockton Golf and Country Club, and Karl Ross Post of the American Legion, of which he was first president, serving two terms.

At Stockton, in 1914, Mr. Edwards was married to Miss Margaret L. Reid, a native of Scotland, who was reared in Stockton; and their union has been blessed with one daughter, Joanne L. Edwards. Mr. Edwards is developing two ranches in the Lin- den section of the county; he recently planted a walnut orchard, and he has had for four years a

dairy ranch of eighty acres, with twenty-five cows. He is a member of the San Joaquin County Bar Association and of the Phi Alpha Delta Fraternity.

PETER CALORI .- At present residing at 2006 North El Dorado Street, Stockton, Peter Calori is an old-time resident of San Joaquin County, with whose various interests and affairs he has been closely identified since the year 1881, when as a boy of eight- een he left the parental roof in far-away Italy and cast his lot in California. Agriculture in its differ- ent phases has been the chief object of his attention and endeavors since coming here, and his unqualified success as a vegetable gardener near Mossdale has brought him recognition as one of the foremost men of his class in San Joaquin County. He was born in the Province of Genoa, near Chiavari, Italy, Oc- tober 29, 1863, and is the youngest son of Dominico and Maria Calori, both natives of the same province. In 1866 the father made a trip to Brazil where he re- mained only four months when he returned to Italy and became an extensive rancher and vineyardist. Both parents are now deceased.

Peter Calori is the youngest of three children and the only one to come to the United States. At the age of eighteen years he went to Havre, France, and there took passage on a vessel bound for America reaching San Francisco in June, 1881, and soon found employment in the vegetable gardens of Marin County, where he worked for three months, when he settled in this county, which has been his home ever since. For five years he worked in vegetable gardens where now stands the splendid group of buildings of the Stockton high school. In 1893, Mr. Calori came to Mossdale and purchased fifty-four acres of raw land covered with tules and willows. He cleared the land and plantet orchard and vineyard. Sev- eral times his orchard and vineyard was swept away by the floods, until finally the levees were constructed of sufficient strength to control the flood waters and Mr. Calori was able to raise fine crops of fruits and vegetable ; on his land, and his products became known all over the county. Nine years ago Mr. Calori erected a fine residence on his ranch, but since retiring from active business life he has lived in Stockton with his family, where he owns a resi- dence on North Eldorado Street. Mr. Calori's ener- gies are not alone confined to ranching operations but as he has prospered he has invested his profits in business and residence property in Stockton being very optimistic for the future greatness of this city.

The marriage of Mr. Calori occurred in Stockton November 29, 1891, and united him with Miss Sera- fina Rossi, a native of Italy, born near Genoa, a daughter of G. B. and Catherine Rossi who followed agricultural pursuits and are both now deceased. Her maternal grandfather, Nichol Guglierri, made the trip to San Francisco in the early period of the gold ex- citement and for a few years followed mining in the mother lode country when he returned to Italy and spent the remainder of his days. Serafina Rossi, the fourth of eleven children, arrived in Stockton in 1891; there she met and married Mr. Calori, and their union has been blessed with four children who are all very devoted to their parents. Mary attended Heald's Business College, Edna the Stockton high school, and the two sons are Andrew and August.

Mr. Calori was one of the founders of the Asso- ciated Gardeners' Union, an association for marketing

mrs. Po Calori

I Colori

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

fruits and vegetables, and was an active and influen- tial member until his retirement from the busy life of a rancher. He has never had occasion to regret his determination to seek a home in America.

HERMAN C. MEYER .- A history of an institu- tion is but a biography of those who made it. Any story of the Stockton City Laundry is a story of the enterprise and business sagacity of Herman C. Meyer, one of the city's leading men, and his associate, Mrs. Anna Sellman. Herman C. Meyer was born on his father's ranch, seven miles east of Stockton, October 20, 1863, the son of Henry and Anna R. (Behrman) Meyer. His father, Henry Meyer, was one of Califor- nia's pioneers, coming West in 1849. He engaged for awhile in mining and then the family located on a farm in the fertile San Joaquin County where seven sons and one daughter were born. Young Herman attended the Delphi district school and at seventeen years of age started out to earn his own living. His first employment was in a San Francisco grocery store. After three years in the metropolis, he re- turned to Stockton and entered the employ of Mr. Lafayette Sellman, who then owned and managed the Stockton City Steam Laundry.

After Mr. Sellman's death, Mr. Meyer was made manager. In 1903 the laundry was incorporated and he was elected vice-president and general manager of the institution, a position he has ever since held. Always the aim and purpose of the management of the Stockton City Laundry has been service. Many years of conscientious thought and close study and the expenditure of much money for the latest and most efficient machinery has developed the institu- tion to its present high rank among the laundries of the West.

Associated with Mr. Meyer in the conduct of the business has always been Mrs. Anna Sellman and her daughter, Grace Sellman Coates, who is secretary- treasurer of the company. In answer to the demands of inevitable expansion, they have made extensive improvements. The entire plant is in three units, on lots each 50x150 feet, and about sixty-five hands are employed regularly.

Machinery that performs marvelous work has been installed and the big plant has won the admiration of men who specialize in the laundry business. Experts from many cities have informed Mr. Meyer that his establishment represents the last word in laundry equipment. One of the outstanding features of the laundry process is the equipment for softening the water, thereby eliminating the use of caustic soda's, etc. This is an invaluable protection to all materials laundered. This softened water combined with pure soap greatly prolongs the life of the fabric. A girls' rest room is in process of installation, with lockers for each girl and hot and cold water, and an attractive lunch room. Tea and coffee will be served by the company. These provisions are greatly appreciated by the employees who, it is needless to say, are among the most expert to be found anywhere. Through Mrs. Sellman's humanitarianism each em- ployee is presented with a life insurance policy at the end of six months' service.

While this busy institution has been Mr. Meyer's hobby and his life's work, yet he has found time to engage in extensive operations in other fields. He is 87

a director in the City Bank of Stockton, and also in the Home Builders' Investment and Securities Com- pany, and a member of the firm of Charles E. Pike, furniture dealers.

Herman Meyer is a fraternal man-big hearted and brotherly. He holds active membership in all Masonic bodies, including the Shrine, and is an Odd Fellow of high standing. He is a member of the Stockton Parlor, N. S. G. W., of Stockton Lodge, No. 218, B. P. O. E .; he belongs to the Stockton Golf and Country Club, the Yosemite Club, and the Ro- tary Club. He was married in 1913 to Jessie Ora Farmer Belding. They have two children: Miss Be- nora F. Belding, aged sixteen, and Miss Anna Cort Meyer, aged eight, in whose companionship he finds the greatest delight.

LEON E. McCLUNG .- An early settler of Lodi is represented by Leon E. McClung, who for the past thirty-one years has been an important factor in the remarkable development of the Lodi section. His parents were farmers near Niles, the county seat of Berrien County, Mich., and he was born on his father's farm on December 31, 1864. His paternal grandparents were pioneers of Michigan, settling there when it was a vast wilderness, where they reared their family.

Leon E. received his schooling in the district schools in his native county and twenty-six years of his life were spent on the farm, years of toil, but none the less valuable in after life. During the year of 1890 he left home for the Pacific Coast and located in Spokane, Wash., where he remained for one year, coming to Lodi in 1891. He formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Ed. F. Van Vlear, in the building business and they were the pioneers in that line, the partnership continuing for four years, during which time many residences were erected throughout the county and city. Besides his building operations Mr. McClung bought acre- age property, which he cut up into small tracts, erecting houses on same and selling them. He pur- chased four acres in the Barnhart tract and erected four houses, each house surrounded by an acre of land; thus his work has meant the upbuilding of the community adjacent to Lodi, and its permanence and stability. He has specialized in contracts with ranchers to take bare land, erect residences and out- buildings, complete in every respect, and has made a great success in this line, employing as high as twenty men in his building operations. His exper- ience and connection with viticulture have been quite extensive in buying, developing and selling the im- proved vineyards. He was among the very first growers to irrigate vineyards, contrary to the ad- vice of many other growers, but by actual demon- stration he found that the irrigated vineyard pro- duced more and better grapes than the unirrigated one. At one time he owned a twenty-acre vineyard in the Dougherty tract, one of the best producers in the county; this he later sold at a good profit.

Mr. McClung has been twice married, his first wife being Miss Lizzie Van Vlear, a native of Mich- igan, who passed away in 1916. Two children were born of this union: Myrtle is Mrs. Henry Daley, and they reside at Burlingame and have two chil- dren; Earl is married and has two children, residing in Sacramento; he is associated with an automobile company. The second marriage of Mr. McClung

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united him with Mrs. Elizabeth (Riggs) Howe, a native of Missouri. She owns a fifteen-acre vineyard in the Lodi section. Mr. McClung has demonstrated his ability to advance steadily toward the goal of prosperity and at the same time to give his aid to matters destined for the progress and development of his locality.

WILLIAM MECKLENBERG .- For the past thirty-seven years William Mecklenberg has con- tinuously resided in San Joaquin County and since early manhood has been prominently identified with the agricultural interests of San Joaquin County, having been one of the most extensive grain farm- ers of the West Side. He was born at Des Moines, Iowa, on February 2, 1883, and when two years old was brought by his mother to this state and entered the home of George Thoming, near Vernalis, and in this splendid environment he grew to young man- hood. He received a good education in the schools of the district and when he was fourteen years old began to make his way in the world. He worked for five years on the Thoming ranch, or until he was nineteen years old, then began to farm on shares. receiving in the neighborhood of 11,000 sacks of grain for his share. In 1905 he purchased 160 acres of land and gradually added to it until he owned a half-section, and with another quarter-section leased he thus farmed 480 acres to wheat and barley. In connection with his grain raising, he had also dealt in buying and selling mules and horses.

On account of failing health he sold everything in 1919, and upon his removal to Tracy, he under- went three serious operations, but by excellent care is slowly regaining his former health. He now owns twenty acres of excellent irrigated alfalfa land on the Lincoln Highway, three miles east of Tracy, on which is a fine residence and other farm buildings. Mr. Mecklenberg is the father of two children, Ivan and Dorothy, and his mother makes her home with him. He owns a residence on East Tenth street and other desirable town lots in Tracy. . Politically he is a Republican and fraternally is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. He is a representative resi- dent of San Joaquin County, where he has made his home from his boyhood days.

JAMES P. MURPHY .- An experienced, progres- sive and very successful rancher, fortunate in the aid of his equally ambitious and enterprising sons, is James P. Murphy, well-known in patriotic circles as a stand-pat Jeffersonian Democrat. He was born in Sonora, Tuolumne County, on November 8, 1870, the son of John and Mary Margaret (Vizzard) Murphy, both of whom were natives of Ireland. Our subject was afforded the best common-school advantages, and in 1886 rounded out his studies, with honors, at Atlanta, in this county. The follow- ing year he took up ranching on the homestead, not far away, cultivating a portion of his father's ranch; and in this initial venture he was very successful. About 1904, he removed to another ranch, near Lodi, where he followed grain-farming for about eleven years. He painstakingly availed himself of the last word of science in modern agricultural methods, studying conditions and prospects in the California field in particular, and he used only the most up-to-date appliances, as a result of which he not only advanced to the forefront, but he was able also to point the way where others might follow.

At Modesto, Mr. Murphy was married to Miss Helen Ida Johnson, the ceremony taking place on June 16, 1890, and the lady being a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Herman and Magdalena Johnson, pioneers in San Joaquin County. Both of these esteemed parents are now deceased; but a brother of Mrs. Murphy, Fred Johnson, is still living, the popular chief deputy county clerk in San Joaquin County. Nine children have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Murphy: William J. resides with his wife and five children on a ranch near Vernalis; Thomas F., who is also married, is a merchant in San Francisco; James P. Murphy, Jr., saw valiant service in the U. S. Army and is now chief business clerk of the Ford Garage at Tracy, his popularity having been increased by his candidacy for the office of city trustee in Tracy, on April 10, 1922; Ed. P., a rancher, also served in the U. S. Army; Cecilia Anne is the wife of Harold Strother, and resides at Gridley, Colusa County, and they have one daugh- ter; Mary M. is the wife of Fred Hilken, of Tracy; Delia E. is a nurse at the St. Joseph Home, in Stockton; Miss Agnes lives at home; and Joseph A. is still a student. In 1915, Mr. Murphy and his sons acquired the William Mecklenberg rancho near Vernalis; and there they have since very success- fully engaged in grain farming.

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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 198

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