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 200

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 200

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Mr. Gallego's first business in Banta in the early '90s was to operate a sheep-shearing and sheep-dip- ping camp. He was a professional sheep shearer, working in California, Nevada and Oregon. His rec- ord was shearing 143 sheep per day; then dancing all night, and shearing as many sheep the next day. He made this record at Firebaugh, Fresno County, when he worked for Miller & Lux. His excellent wife kept a boarding house in Banta for eighteen years and was in every way a true and loyal helpmate to. her husband.

JOHN B. ARRABIT .- A very successful stock man who was a man of affairs in the San Joaquin Valley is John B. Arrabit, a prominent sheep grower and enterprising man. He was born in Bayonne, Basses-Pyrenees, France, November 5, 1880, a son of Jean and Marie (Garra) Arrabit, also natives of that place, who are successful stockraisers and both are still living. The father made a trip to California in 1905 for a visit to his children, after which he re- turned to his home in France. They had six chil- dren: Anna, Mrs. Sallaberry, resides at the old home with her parents; John B., the subject of this review; Jacques, a sheep grower in this Valley; Etiennette is the wife of D. Changala of Stockton; Martin is a sheep raiser at Los Banos; and Ben a sheep raiser in Stockton.

John B. spent his boyhood in the lower Pyrenees region where he received a good education in the public schools. From a lad he assisted his father on the farm and in the care of their cattle and sheep. In 1901 he responded to the military law of his country and entered the French army, serving in the 24th Light Artillery, being stationed at Tarbes, Haute- Pyrenees. Having served the required time of one year he was honorably discharged and could go wherever he liked.

Mr. Arrabit had read and heard of the wonderful opportunities here awaiting men of brawn who were not afraid to work so he decided to cast in his lot in the land of gold and sunshine. Leaving his home in 1902 he came to New York, then crossed the great American continent to Stockton, Cal. He immedi- ately went to work, having found employment with Julian Masterrena, a sheepman at Los Banos, con- tinuing with him for a period of four years. During this time his keen observation and perception gave him an insight into the successful raising and hand- ling of sheep as done in the West, and he determined to embark in the business on his own account. He had saved some money and also established a good credit, and this enabled him to purchase a band of sheep which he ranged in the vicinity of Mendota. He began with 1,000 head, which he increased from time to time, and he soon had a band of 5,000, which is about the number he now keeps; in summer he has a range in the Forest Reserve Park in Mono County, while the balance of the year he ranges them on the west side from Mendota to Coalinga and on to Bakersfield. The last few years he has made his headquarters and residence in Stockton.

The marriage of Mr. Arrabit occurred in Bakers- field in 1916, when Miss Marie Saldubahere became his bride. She was born in Aldudes, Basses-Pyre- nees, France, and came to Bakersfield when a young lady, making her home with an uncle who was an old resident of Kern County. Mr. Arrabit is a very energetic man and is never idle, looking after and seeing to every detail of his business. Thus he has been able to see his affairs grow from a small be- ginning to a large paying business which yields him a competency while he is yet in the prime of life, a result of his starting out with the idea that industry and frugality will win success when rightly applied and practiced. He is enterprising and public-spirited and always ready to help movements and enterprises that have for their aim the development and building up of this great valley in which he has such un-

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John B. arrabit

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bounded faith. He is a believer in protection as a fundamental principle for Americans, and is therefore a strong Republican.

HENRY FINCK .- A highly-progressive and very successful farmer is Henry Finck, a pioneer of Banta district of San Joaquin County, who was born in Hanover, Germany, on September 5, 1844, and came to America with an uncle and a sister in 1859. They journeyed to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and arrived in San Francisco in October of that year. His uncle died shortly afterward, and our subject was obliged to earn his own living when only fifteen years of age.

He first followed clerking in a grocery store; but he proved such a hustler that at the age of nineteen he owned an interest in a butcher shop in San Fran- cisco. The shop was on Montgomery Street, near Union, and thus he grew up and lived in the Tele- graph Hill district. In 1866, in company with the three Lammers brothers, he located in San Joaquin County; and there they took up a quarter section of Government land at Mohr's Landing, now called Bethany, and bought a section of railroad land which was farmed to barley. From that date on up to a short time ago Henry Finck was one of the leading and successful farmers of that section; and he is now retired. The first year, for example, he sowed 100 acres to grain; the second, 600 acres; and the third, 1,200 acres. He farmed this up to 1888, and five years before that he bought land near Banta, and at one time owned 1,900 acres.

This last ranch, of which he still owns 600 acres, was a part of the McMullin & Trahern rancho, and for a number of years he ran a slaughter house on the West Side, and also had a dairy of eighty fine Hol- stein cows. He made cheese, and sold the output to the Hobbs-Parsons Company of Stockton. He was the first man to build a levee in his district, con- structed on his land for drainage purposes. He bought large tracts of land on Union Island in 1873, which he again sold in two years, and in 1918 he bought back 1,100 acres of the same, and was one of the largest grain-growers there, having 10,000 sacks in one lot piled up for shipment. The flood of 1906 caused him a heavy loss in cattle, cows and grain; but the next year he harvested 1,140. tons of wild oats, on the plains, which helped to remunerate him. On January 1, 1868, he killed the last elk known to have been dispatched in the valley. It had come down from the mountains to swim the river, and weighed 800 pounds when it met its fate at Mohr's Landing.

Mr. Finck has been twice married. His first wife was Lena Rohde, a native of Germany; and they had nine children, the first three sons dying in infancy, while the others are as follows: Jenna is the wife of Henry Krohn; Anna is the wife of Adolph Win- deler; and Dora is the wife of Leland Raab. The sons are Fred Henry, Harry Carson, and Martin Lammers. Through his second marriage, in 1918, Mrs. Mary (Conrady) Denz, a native of Baltimore, Md., became his wife. She was the daughter of Dr. C. A. Con- rady, a pioneer German physician, who came to Stock- ton twenty-eight years ago from Bay City, Mich., and practiced here, dying four years after his arrival. Her mother recently died at the age of eighty-five years. Both parents were born in Germany. Henry Finck recently presented each of his six children 150 acres of his Union Island ranch, and the 600 acres of the old home ranch at Banta are now being farmed by

his son, Harry. He was a school trustee of the Lam- mersville and Banta school districts, and he helped to raise the money to build the German Lutheran Church at Tracy. He himself is a member of the German Methodist Church at Stockton. He is a char- ter member of the Tracy Lodge of Odd Fellows, No. 177, and in 1921 celebrated his half-century member- ship of the same. He is a past noble grand of the order; and on the occasion referred to, was presented with a gold medal, which he values very highly.

(Since this biography was written Mr. and Mrs. Finck met with accidental deaths while motoring to their home. A Western Pacific train struck them at the East Park Street crossing May 1, 1922, removing from the midst two of San Joaquin County's most influential upbuilders.)

ALEXANDER L. GARROW .- A successful mer- chant of Stockton is Alexander L. Garrow, who owns and operates a grocery store located at 638 North Aurora Street. He was born in Stockton, June 5, 1870, the eldest son of Charles and Elizabeth (Lau- meister) Garrow. Charles Garrow was born in Glas- gow, Scotland, and at sixteen years of age came to America and was one of the California '49ers and in the early '50s located in Stockton, where he con- ducted a store. Next he purchased an interest in the City Brewery but sold it some years later and estab- lished the "Red Store," a grocery store on California and Sonora streets. On disposing of it he became steward at the County Hospital, a position he held for six years. Then he purchased one-half block on North Aurora and West Park streets, where he built a store and did a successful business until he sold it and purchased a one-quarter block on Fremont and East streets where in partnership with A. Munch he engaged in the grocery business and also handled poultry and eggs. Here Mr. Garrow was in busi- ness until his death in 1910; his widow still resides in Stockton. This pioneer couple had eleven children, of whom Mr. Garrow is the oldest.

Alexander L. Garrow grew up and received his education in the Stockton schools and after complet- ing his education entered the employ of the city as a clerk in the street department at the city hall, where he remained twenty years. Ten years ago he pur- chased property at 634 North Aurora Street and established his present lucrative business at No. 638, on the same street.

The marriage of Mr. Garrow occurred in Stockton April 20, 1892, and united him with Miss Lena Ray, born in Stockton, the daughter of David Ray, a pio- neer carpenter of Stockton. David Ray was a native of Pennsylvania and crossed the plains in 1849 to Cal- ifornia. He married Catherine Henceman, a native of Texas, who came with her parents to San Joaquin County, where her father became a pioneer builder, a business he followed all through life. He passed away March 26, 1906, while his widow died April 26. 1923. Eleven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Garrow: Lucial is the wife of Paul Oard, whose sketch appears in this volume; Ethel is the wife of Minor Sosey, a member of the grocery firm with Mr. Garrow; Elston served two years in the Marine Radio as an operator with the Matson line. The others are: Bragdon, John A., Laverne, Robert, Merle and Ruth (twins), and Ralph and Melvin (also twins). Frater- nally, Mr. Garrow is a member of the Moose and Eagles lodges of Stockton.

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

MRS. MARTHA ALICE FREDERICK .- For more than a half century Mrs. Martha Alice Freder- ick has been a resident of San Joaquin County and is honored throughout the county for her true worth. She was born at Rising Sun, Polk County, Iowa, on August 19, 1862, the youngest of a family of nine children born to Robert R. and Mary Jane (King) Wilcox, both natives of New York, born February 25, 1819, and January 10, 1823, respectively. Her par- ents located in Pennsylvania on a homestead in 1828, where Robert R. Wilcox became identified promi- nently in the lumber and oil business and there amassed a large fortune. He was married at Oil Creek, Pa., to Miss Mary Jane King and nine chil- dren were born to them. Eleanor became the wife of James R. Curtiss and settled in western Kansas; she passed away at Summerfield, Kans., April 17, 1922, aged eighty-one, and was survived by five children. James R., a veteran of the Civil War in which he was twice wounded, is a retired farmer and stockman residing with his family of three children at Beattie, Kans. Clarissa Angeline is the widow of Benjamin G. Frederick, who was born July 3, 1844, near South Whitney, Ind., and was reared on a farm. Early in 1870 he and his wife arrived in California and settled in Ripon, where he erected the first building and con- ducted a boarding house; later Mr. Frederick became a prominent orchardist. He was a veteran of the Civil War, having served in Company I, 18th Volunteer Infantry from Iowa. He was familiarly known as Uncle Benjamin in the vicinity of Ripon and was a prominent member of the Brethren Church; he passed away June 29, 1906. Mrs. Benjamin Fred- erick divides her time between Stockton and her old home at Ripon. John Gilbert is residing with his wife and six children in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he is engaged in the hardware and implement business; W. R., an inventor and mining expert in Manhattan, Nev., died November 15, 1922; Sarah Jane is de- ceased; Henry F. is a building contractor in Salida, Colo .; Emory is deceased; Martha Alice is the sub- ject of this sketch. Robert R. Wilcox, the father of our subject, settled in Ripon in 1882 and farmed for a few years near Taylor's Ferry; he passed away at Ripon, November 23, 1904, aged eighty-five years; his wife had passed away May 23, 1865.

Martha Alice Wilcox accompanied her sister, Mrs. Clarissa Frederick, to California in 1870 and grew to young womanhood in Ripon. On August 14, 1881, she was married to Harrison Frederick, born in Indi- ana, September 20, 1845, a son of Duncan and Lu- cinda (Beatley) Frederick, natives of Ohio, the father a pioneer farmer of his native state of Ohio. Harri- son Frederick accompanied his two brothers, John and Thomas, whose sketches also appear in this his- tory, to California across the plains in 1862, bringing with them considerable stock; they settled on the Stanislaus River near the present site of Ripon where they engaged in farming and stock raising and all three of the brothers became well known and influen- tial citizens. Mr. Frederick built a fine large resi- dence on his ranch where the young married couple began their wedded life. Three children were born to them: Gilbert is married and has two children- Benjamin and Harrison; he is a rancher and mer- chant; Clara Lillian resides at home with her mother; Nellie B. is the wife of Clyde Wilcox and they have three children: Robert, Wesley and Martha; they reside at Melones, Cal. Mr. Frederick was a liberal

contributor to all worthy movements; he gave the land to the county for the San Joaquin school and served as a trustee of that district for many years; fraternally he was a charter member of the Mt. Horeb Lodge, I. O. O. F. When he passed away November 11, 1913, the county lost one of its most worthy pio- neers. After her husband's death, Mrs. Frederick and her daughter, Clara Lillian, continued the manage- ment of the home place, which became one of the show places of the Ripon section. In 1919 the home place was sold for a large sum and in 1921 the family residence at 601 Tuxedo Park, Stockton, was built. Mrs. Frederick is past matron of the Rebekah Lodge at Ripon and she and her daughter are members of the Iowa Club of Northern California.

MAX LEETZOW .- Of the sturdy and stanch pio- neers who settled in the wilds of the Golden State in the early days none were more worthy than the ances- tors of Max Leetzow, and the same sterling traits of character which they possessed are found in him. He was born on his father's farm in north San Joa- quin County in the Turner school district, February 18, 1883. His parents were Gottfried and Mary Leet- zow, the former a native of Germany, and were pio- neers of 1849, who crossed the plains to California with an ox team train. Our subject is the youngest of three children born to this worthy pioneer couple, the others being two daughters, Lottie and Bertha. Gottfried Leetzow settled in San Joaquin County, where he took up 160 acres of Government land at the west end of the Kelly Road. There he spent the remainder of his days, passing away at the age of eighty-three in 1910, while the mother died at the age of seventy-nine. Upon distribution of the father's estate, the home place was given to the subject.

Max Leetzow received his education at the Turner district school and in boyhood learned many practical lessons in agriculture, so that when he was old enough he began to farm for himself. He has owned and farmed several ranches in the county; among the first was a seventeen and a half acre vineyard at Dougherty Station northeast of Lodi, where he resided for a number of years before moving to Lodi. He now owns a seventy-acre vineyard five miles north of Lodi on Cherokee Road. He also owns a tract of land in Sutter County, consisting of 192 acres; this is timber land and it is the intention of Mr. Leetzow to develop the entire acreage to orchard.

On November 18, 1915, at Stockton, Mr. Leetzow was married to Miss Louise Youngman, a native of San Jose, Cal. She is the daughter of Nicholas and Selma (Krauter) Youngman. Her father passed away when she was a small girl of two years and subsequently her mother married Peter Stuter. Her mother resides in Lodi at the present time, but her step-father passed away in 1909. Mrs. Leetzow is the youngest of three children, the others being Carl and Alice, and there was one step-brother, Frank Stuter, now deceased. After her mother's second marriage, the family removed to Santa Cruz County, where Mrs. Leetzow received most of her education. Mr. and Mrs. Leetzow reside in their comfortable home at 338 East Oak Street, Lodi, with their two children, Selma Marie and Harold Max. In politics Mr. Leetzow is a Republican, and an enthusiastic booster for San Joaquin County. He is a well known and popular citizen, and in many ways has performed a useful part in the affairs of his community.

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THOMAS H. LUKE .- A wide-awake business man, noted for both his initiative and his executive ability, is Thomas H. Luke, the efficient and popular director of sales of the Holt Manufacturing Company at Stockton. He was born in Gear's Valley, Nevada County, Cal., on August 29, 1869, the son of a well- known pioneer who came out to the Golden State in 1851, by way of the Isthmus, and on reaching Gear's Valley and Virginia City, Nev., went in for mining. .He built the first brick structure there, a hotel, and conducted it for a number of years; and the evidence of his thorough way of doing things, even in those primitive days of building, is the fact that the house is still standing, an interesting land-mark.

Thomas Luke went to school in Virginia City and Grass Valley, and ranched for five years in Nevada County. He came to Stockton in 1891 as a wheel- wright, with the Holt Bros. Company, and he has been continuously in the employ of the Holts ever since. He holds the record there of the longest term of continuous employment of any man in their em- ploy-thirty-two years-and during that time he never lost a day's pay. He has worked in every department, and was the first man to travel on the road for the company. He was clerk in the Holt office, and later in charge of sales, and since 1911 he has been director of sales, in full charge of the selling of all the Holt products. He has traveled all over the Pacific Coast, and personally knows every customer in every town and city. He started selling harvesters; then he went to steam tractors; and since 1909 he has made it easier for the inquiring public to learn the advan- tages of the "Caterpillar" tractor.

In addition to his responsibilities in the matter of making more sales for the Holt products than any other competing house may boast of, Mr. Luke is president of the People's Finance & Thrift Company, which was organized to combat the loan shark. In a most complimentary notice published in the Stock- ton Record at the time the project was launched, that highly-representative newspaper said, under the cap- tion, "New Bank Organized in Stockton to Extend Loans to Wage Earners," that the object of the in- corporators was to lend money at a reasonable, and not an exorbitant rate of interest, and that the stock- holders had selected the following directors: Thomas H. Luke, Joseph Solari, F. H. Clark, P. Pezzi, George L. Meissner, Albert B. Wimsett, Leroy S. Atwood, Ralph Vignolo and E. V. Burke. The officers chosen at a subsequent meeting of the board of directors were: Thomas H. Luke, president; F. H. Clark, first vice-president; P. Pezzi, second vice-president; Earl D. Pillsbury, secretary; and C. W. Humphreys, treas- urer. The introduction of the People's Finance and Thrift Company into this community sounds the death-knell of the loan sharks, and others who have been charging exorbitant and usurious rates of inter- est for small and much-needed loans. It has been thoroughly demonstrated by these institutions that character plus earning ability is a proper basis of credit, and the lines carried out by President Luke's company will be similar to those followed in other parts of the United States where these institutions are in successful operation.

In the year 1891, Mr. Luke was married to Miss Ida Balch, a native of Grass Valley, and their union has been blessed with the birth of three daughters, Florence, Lorain and Alice. Mr. Luke belongs to 88

Stockton Parlor No. 7 of the Native Sons of the Golden West, to Lodge No. 218 of the Stockton Elks, and to San Joaquin Lodge No. 19 of the Masons; and he is also a member of the Yosemite Club.

JERRY O'BRIEN, D. D. S .- Occupying a posi- tion of distinction as a representative of the dental profession in Stockton, Dr. Jerry O'Brien's capa- bility is evidenced by the large patronage which is accorded him. His equipment for the profession was unusually good and this he has continually ex- tended through keeping in touch with the marked advancement that has been made in this profession in the last quarter of a century. One of California's native sons, Dr. O'Brien was born at Colusa, on July 6, 1874, a son of Dennis and Mary E. (Spil- lane) O'Brien, both natives of Ireland. The mother and father were married in New York City and came to California via Panama in the early '50s, being carried across the Isthmus on the backs of natives. The father was a shoemaker by trade, and upon arrival in San Francisco opened a shop on Market street where the Palace Hotel now stands; later he removed to Colusa and the Gold Hill mine, but finally returned to Colusa, where the family re- sided for a time; then removed to Modoc County. There were nine children in the family and both parents are deceased; the father, who passed away in Alturas in 1921 at the age of ninety-two years, had been an Odd Fellow for many years. The mother passed away in 1887.

Jerry attended the grammar school in Colusa until he was ten years old, then when his family removed to Modoc County he attended school at Alturas. Being one of a large family of children, he was obliged to look out for himself after finishing the grammar grades, so he learned the printer's trade on the Alturas New Era, and then went to Marysville and there continued on the Appeal and later the Democrat; later he worked in the state printing office at Sacramento. Then, with his brother, W. S. O'Brien, he purchased the Sutter Independent, a weekly newspaper at Yuba City, and together they ran same for three years, when he removed to Stockton and entered the Stockton Busi- ness College, from which he graduated in 1898. He then returned to Sacramento and again worked in the state printing office; then he went to Marysville, where he became cashier for the general merchan- dise store of Weinlander & Hexter. In 1900 he en- tered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at San Francisco, studying dentistry and medicine, this course covering a period of two years, when he en- tered the University of California, from which he was graduated in 1903 with the degree of D. D. S. For the next ten years he practiced his profession in Central America, principally in Guatemala City, and while there he was graduated from the College of Medicine and Pharmacy with the degree of C. D. and is a member of the faculty of the above college. On returning to California in 1916, he began prac- tice in Stockton and also took charge of the dental clinic at the Emergency Hospital. In 1918 he vol- unteered his services to the dental department of the American Red Cross and was commissioned a first lieutenant and sent to Siberia, where he was in charge of the dental department of the Red Cross Hospital at Omsk, an institution with 1,100 beds, and while there he was commissioned a captain. Later

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

he was transferred to Tomsk, where he was in charge of the refugee department, distributing sup- plies. After sixteen months in Siberia he returned home on the transport Thomas via Manila to San Francisco. He opened new offices in the Elks building at Stockton, resuming his practice, and was again in charge of the dental clinic a year. Later, however, he resigned to devote all of his time to his practice.

Dr. O'Brien was married in Guatemala City to Miss Mary Esther Penzotti, a native of Chile, who was educated at the Newton, Mass., high school and Boston Conservatory of Music. They have two children: Francis Joseph, born in Marysville, Cal .; Mary Esther, born in Guatemala. Dr. O'Brien was the founder of the Beta Delta Chapter of the Psi Omega Dental Fraternity at the University of Cali- fornia. They own their own fraternity house near the Affiliated Colleges in San Francisco, and he was first grand master. He is president of the Central California District Dental Society and is also a member of the American and State Dental Associa- tions. He is a member of the Stockton Advertis- ing Club. He is a member of Delta Lodge No. 47, F. & A. M., and also all the Scottish Rite bodies in Stockton as well as the Sciots, and with his wife is a member of the O. E. S. He is also a member of Stockton Parlor No. 7, N. S. G. W., Stockton Lodge 218, B. P. O. E., and the Loyal Order of Moose, and is an honorary member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and was one of the founders of the Siberian Veterans' Association.

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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 200

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