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 212

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 212

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

in New York City during that year. He worked at his trade by day and attended night school and in this way passed through the grammar grades and the high school, specializing in architectural drawing. He spent a number of years working for an education, but finally mastered the English language and was well fitted for his life's work. He followed his trade in New York and was superintendent of construction for a New York firm of contractors. During the year of 1911 he removed to Oakland, Cal., and in the spring of 1912 came to Stockton and was employed by the Totten & Brand Planing Mill for two years. In the fall of 1914 he set up in business for himself as build- ing contractor. Some of the outstanding buildings erected by him are as follows: the Walsh, Selma and Jacobs apartments; the August school; Dr. J. A. Stamer flats; J. Greenberg residence, a store building for Judge Tye, and a store building for L. Jacobs, and other fine homes in Stockton; a $10,000 residence for W. C. Brown near Lodi and the Burwood school near Escalon; in the summer of 1920 he erected a $50,000 garage of brick and concrete in Fresno, and has since built $35,000 worth of buildings there. His conscien- tious and painstaking work bespeaks for him an in- creased patronage and great financial gains.

The marriage of Mr. Peletz united him with Miss Rose Davidson, a native of Russia who came to Amer- ica when only five years old. They are the parents of two children: Harold and Cyril. Mr. Peletz takes a deep interest in civic and business affairs and is an ardent supporter of all progressive measures for the good of his locality.

GIOBATTA CANESSA .- An Italian-American who, on account of his marked success in the culti- vation of a trim orchard and vineyard of some twenty acres four and one-half miles out of Stockton, on the White Road, the result of his combined progres- sive methods and thorough, scientific industry, has become one of the most interesting ranchers in that locality, is Giobatta Canessa, who was born in Canale province, Genoa, Italy, in 1870, the son of Louis and Mary (Cuneo) Canessa. His father was a farmer, and he lived and died in Italy, where his affectionate and equally devoted mother also breathed her last. The worthy couple had eight children: Nicholas, de- ceased; Antonio; Giobatta, the subject of this story; Rosie, Angelo, Louisa and Mary are dead; and Anna.

Reared in Italy, and educated in her public schools, Giobatta, on the 20th of September, 1888, arrived in San Francisco, where he secured work in a fish market. He could not stand the dampness, however, and after three months took up vegetable garden work for two years. He then spent one summer at Ventura, and having returned to the north, he put in four months in a hotel at San Rafael. He then se- cured a job with the Pacheco-Gray Tankhouse Com- pany, and for the following three and one-half years worked for them. After that he was employed in a lumber yard, between Fourth and Fifth streets, in San Francisco.

In 1904, he bought twenty acres of stubblefield, but soon sold one-half of it, setting out the other ten acres as an orchard and vineyard, and then built a home upon it. A few years later he purchased a neighboring ten acres, on the north, which had al- ready been set out as an orchard, and for two years he managed these twenty acres for himself. He then leased the ranch and ran a vegetable and fruit wagon

to Waterford, Knights Ferry, Turlock and James- town, his object being to help pay for his farm.

After that, he made a trip to Toronto, Canada, where he spent three months, when he returned to Italy and spent some time in a delightful visit to his home and native district, and among kinsfolk and friends. Coming back to San Francisco in 1908, he was married on November 29 to Miss Katherine Roggio, a native of Chiavari, Italy, and the daughter of Guiseppe and Angela Roggio, a very worthy couple still living in Italy, who had five children, the eldest being Guiseppe, the next youngest, Alfred, who was killed in the late World War, in brave action on the battlefield, and Angela, Christina, and Katherine, the devoted wife of our subject. Two children have blessed this union, Rita and Norma. Mr. and Mrs. Canessa have a comfortable home, where they ex- tend a welcome to all who come their way; and as an industrious, thrifty and public-spirited couple, they afford a fine example of the native of Europe who frequently adds much, in wealth of one kind or another, on settling here and electing to become an American citizen.

C. W. COFFMAN .- A worthy representative of Handy County, Va., who became a well-known pioneer of the Prairie state, is C. W. Coffman, who was born in Henderson County, Illinois, on Septem- ber 24, 1863, and there reared and educated in one of the common schools. His father was Jesse Wal- ter Coffman, who married Miss Margaret Switzer. Four children were granted the sturdy couple. Isaac, William Henry and John are deceased; and there is left only the subject of this story.

Mrs. Coffman died when the lad was eleven years of age, and his father married a second time. He had three ranches, one of 122 acres, and two of eighty acres each; and C. W. remained at home with his father until he was twenty-five years of age. In the county where he was born, he married, on March 8, 1896, Miss Atlanta Jane Hazen, the daughter of Joseph and Emeline Hazen, and a member of a family of experienced farmer folks. She was born in Nem- aha County, Kansas, and her father was a native of Ohio, who moved to Kansas and took up government land when she was one and one-half years old. Then, after awhile, they removed to Henderson County, Illi- nois, and there Mrs. Coffman was reared and educated in the public schools. They have had nine children in the Hazen family, but only three are living today, and these are Henry, Mrs. Atlanta Coffman, and Verna, Mrs. Biasi.

Mr. and Mrs. Coffman followed farming in the vicin- ity of the old home place until some seven years after their marriage, and then they moved to Coffee County, Kansas, where they bought a farm and ranched until they came to California, in 1912. They were fortunate in settling at once in San Joaquin County, where Mr. Coffman first purchased a vineyard of twenty acres, which he sold in 1918, when he bought the present ranch of ten acres on the Cherokee Lane Road, about two miles southeast of Acampo, and one mile south of the Houston School. The Coffmans have been here on this ranch since 1918, and they devote it partly to vineyard, and partly to orchard purposes. They have four children.

A stanch Democrat, Mr. Coffman is nevertheless a broad-minded "booster" of the best things locally, regardless of partisanship. When he was a resident of Kansas, he was a school trustee; and he has al-

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

ways been interested in the problems of public edu- cation. He was long an Odd Fellow, and attended the lodges, until deafness prevented him from en- joying the occasions, when, to the regret of many, he withdrew. Mrs. Coffman and the daughter, Iva, are members of the Rebekahs.

LOUIS DELUCCHI .- An enterprising young busi- ness man of Stockton, engaged in the grocery busi- ness, Louis Delucchi is the junior member of the firm of Gaia, Delucchi & Company, dealers in staple and fancy groceries, and who also carry a full line of market products. This enterprising mercantile house carries a large stock and the success which they enjoy is well deserved. Louis Delucchi is a native son of California, born in Stockton, October 9, 1899, the only child of Augustine and Tillie (Botto) Delucchi, both natives of Italy. Augustine Deluc- chi came to Stockton while still a young man, and there he met and married Miss Tillie Botto; thirty- three years of his life were spent in the hotel busi- ness in Stockton. Both parents are residing in Stock- ton. Louis attended grammar and high school in Stockton and at sixteen years of age began his busi- ness career, entering the firm of E. Fontana & Com- pany, the partnership continuing until 1915, when Caesar Gaia purchased the interest of E. Fontana and the business was continued under the firm name of Gaia, Delucchi & Company, located at 320 East Market street, which is still their present business location; here they manufacture ravioli, tagliavini, salami and other food products. They supply Lodi and other neighboring cities and towns in the moun- tains and foothill country with ravioli, macaroni, salami, Italian ham, domestic and imported cheese, fish and other delicacies, as well as a complete line of staple and fancy groceries.

The marriage of Mr. Delucchi occurred in 1917 and united him with Miss Irene Aaron, a daughter of Capt. Aaron of the Stockton Fire Department. They are the parents of one child, Louis, Jr. Mr. De- lucchi is erecting a residence at the corner of Lex- ington and Allston Way, where the family will re- side as soon as it is completed. Mr. Delucchi is a member of the Eagles, Druids and the Stockton Italian Club. He is a self-made man, since the suc- cess he has made in life has been the result of his individual efforts.

MONROE D. EATON .- The progressive spirit and thorough understanding which Monroe D. Eaton displays in connection with the real estate business has brought him most gratifying results and at the same time has been a salient factor in the advance- ment of the county. His parents, Edward R. and Eliza (Wright) Eaton, both natives of New York State, were early settlers of California, where they engaged in farming pursuits on a ranch east of Stockton and on which Monroe D. was born April 30, 1862. His father sailed around the Horn to Cali- fornia in 1860 and in time became a very successful farmer and a large landowner. There are three liv- ing children in the family: Mrs. Ella M. Smail of Stockton; Fred F. of Palo Alto; and Monroe D., our subject. His father passed away in October, 1887.

The education of Monroe D. Eaton was obtained in the grammar and high schools of Stockton and finished with a course in the Stockton Business Col- lege. He then entered the employ of the M. P. Hen- derson Company and followed his trade of wood-

worker, making wagons and other vehicles and farm- ing implements, for seven years .. In the spring of 1886 he established a real estate business with Tom Walsh as a partner, occupying a small office on East Main street, which continued for three years. Mr. Eaton then went into partnership with Eugene M. Grunsky, their partnership covering a period of a few years, when Mr. Eaton sold his interest to Otto Grunsky, a brother of his former partner. In 1893 a partnership was formed with William G. Buckley and Sidney S. Newell, and when Mr. Newell re- tired from the business three years later, Eaton & Buckley have continued the business to the present time. They have made a specialty of buying ranch property, subdividing and selling, having subdivided more ranches than any other firm in Stockton, among the most outstanding being the Elliott tract of 160 acres near Lodi; the Grover tract of 400 acres on the San Joaquin River; the Barnhart tract in Lodi of 410 acres; these tracts were subdivided into lots and small acreages and is now built up, which has been the means of increasing the population and prosperity of the section. The Wilhoit and Douglass tract of 3,500 acres on Roberts Island was subdivided into twenty acres or more and sold; also the Keller- man tract of 240 acres, the Adam Parker establish- ment of 355 acres in and adjoining Tracy, and many other large tracts of importance, their main idea being to attract new settlers to the county, which is the most gratifying development of any community. Mr. Eaton enjoys the reputation of being the best-posted man on land valuations in the county. As a director of the Stockton Savings & Loan Bank, he is a mem- ber of the finance committee and appraiser of bank loans.

The marriage of Mr. Eaton united him with Miss Ida B. Petty, a native Californian, whose father was an early settler and farmer of San Joaquin County. They are the parents of three children: Zelma is the wife of W. F. Dietrich, a mining engineer with Stan- ford University; Captain Ralph M., a professor in Harvard University. He is a graduate of the Uni- versity of California and of Harvard, and was a student there when the United States entered the war; he received a commission of second lieutenant, Infantry of the Rainbow Division; saw active ser- vice all through the war on the West Front and was advanced to first lieutenant at Verdun when the ar- mistice was signed. At the close of the war he was acting captain of the Supply Company. Monroe D. Jr., enters Stanford in the fall. Mr. Eaton is a mem- ber of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau and has a !- ways been active in promoting the welfare of the growers of his locality. In his fraternal relations, he is a member of Stockton Parlor No. 7, of the N. S. G. W., of the Stockton Elks, No. 218, and a char- ter member of the Truth Lodge of Odd Fellows.

ERNEST FOX .- Prominent among the import- ant sociological agencies at work in Stockton for the betterment of society and the making of the city one of the choice places of residence in the United States must be rated the Stockton Coffee Club, at 22 North Center Street, organized by Noel Garri- son, the progressive and popular principal of the Stockton high school, but suggested by Ernest Fox, the originator of the American Coffee Club move- ment, and now the manager of the local club. The movement is based upon the English Coffee Club plan, with the addition of the non-profit and auto-

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matic extension feature. In England, coffee clubs are private enterprises conducted for the profit of the proprietor; but Mr. Fox's plan has eliminated private ownership and provides that any profits resulting must go into extensions and betterment of service.

Under the plan of Mr. Fox, the club is positively kept out of the restaurant business, and so does not arouse the antagonism of other restaurants or any precautionary opposition of dealers in other lines who may fear that the scope of the movement might be enlarged to include their own. The sale of coffee and other foods is not the primary purpose of the club; the primary motive is the maintenance of a social club-room, and the sale of the coffee is made merely as a means of financing the club. One result of this policy is that the patrons of the place do not feel that they are the recipients of charity; and since service is the purpose of the club, and not commer- cial gain, the help employed find that the work is dignified and there is little or no trouble in getting workers to wait upon others.

Mr. Fox organized the first club in San Diego in 1898, and this pioneer club, watched with keen in- terest from the Pacific to the Atlantic, experienced a wonderful growth as long as it held to the Fox plan. The next club was organized in San Jose, on November 22, 1900; and seven years later the Stock- ton Club was organized. Since then there has been a movement to effect a state supervising organiza- tion, and this should be of peculiar satisfaction to Mr. Fox, who started the ball a-rolling in America, and has helped to organize nearly all the coffee clubs in California. It should also interest the sociological student, for funds for the club are obtained for the most part through one dollar membership fees, do- nations and receipts from concerts and entertain- ments. Mr. Fox, who was born and reared in Eng- land, enters heartily into American life, and is strongly inclined to the humane side of life every- where; and in his laudible efforts, he is ably and loy- ally assisted by his good wife.

February 13, 1907, witnessed the organization of the Coffee Club in Stockton, at 229 East Weber ave- nue, from which place it was removed to 22 North California street, and thence to 446 East Weber ave- nue, and finally to its present location at 22 North Center street, where it is now to be seen in a flourish- ing condition. It provides free reading and social rooms, with checkers, chess, dominoes, etc., and lunch at reasonable prices. The purpose, in, short, is to provide a social center free from degrading in- fluences, for the human being is in need of rational enjoyment.

Mr. Fox fought against the idea that the Coffee Club movement should prove a substitute for the saloon, although ninety per cent of the contributions were made on that theory. Mr. Fox stated, in a letter to the. "American Issue," of Dec. 4, 1903, his views upon this subject. "I do not call our Coffee Club a saloon substitute," he says. "It is more than that. It is a social center free from all that is evil, and is used by dozens of young men, many of them homeless, who would otherwise not know what to do. Good treatment may be good enough for a horse or a dog, but a human being needs fellowship. It is partly because this fellowship has been denied to him that he has taken the substitute supplied by the saloon; always bear in mind that the saloon is the

substitute, and that the wild revelry of the saloon has been substituted for rational enjoyment."

The first coffee club in California was incorporated through the efforts of Mr. Fox in 1898, at San Diego, but it eventually failed because they started a bakery, going outside of their original scope and purpose. The second coffee club was started in San Jose in 1900; and Mr. Fox is still interested in its wonderful success and has furnished every manager for it since. He has also taken a very live interest in the Lodi Coffee Club, which was opened in 1911. He also helped to establish the Santa Rosa Coffee Club, which is financially the most successful of any in the state; and he and his associates are now ready to organize the second branch of the Stockton Club, which will be a mixed club for women as well as men. Mr. Fox has devoted twenty-three years of his life to this work, and his heart and soul are in it.

He was born at Sandbach, England, on April 7, 1868, the son of William and Sarah (Pedley) Fox; his father was an English school-teacher, who later became a photographer. He lost his devoted wife at Sandbach in 1891, and in 1896 he brought his two daughters, the subject of this sketch, and two older brothers, William and Frank, to San Diego, the youngest brother, Arnold, having preceded him to America. He died there only three weeks after he arrived. Ernest was brought up in the Congrega- tionalist Church in England, but attended the Meth- odist day school at Sandbach; and when only four- teen, he went to work in a drapery and dry goods store in his native town.

At Stockton, in 1907, Mr. Fox was married to Miss Adelaide May Waite of Seattle, a daughter of Charles A. Waite and a distant relative of former Chief Justice Morrison Remick Waite. She attended school at Minneapolis and Seattle. Her mother, who was Martha A. Mathews before her marriage, is still living at Seattle, a native of Pennsylvania. Like her husband, Mrs. Fox belongs to the Congregational Church. She has entered actively into the work of her husband, and has been one of the determining factors to make real the purpose of the Stockton Coffee Club Association. This purpose is to provide a place of refreshment, recreation and amusement where no intoxicating liquors, cigars or tobacco in any form shall be sold; and it is not surprising that about 800 people daily visit the Stockton Coffee Club to lunch, read, rest or enjoy a social chat. The income from the lunch counter pays all expenses. On April 9, 1923, Mr. Fox opened a second Coffee Club at 19 South Hunter street, where a rest-room and reading-room for women are provided. The Stockton Coffee Club was duly incorporated under the laws of. California, but is not profit-sharing to its stockholders, being a benevolent association, though not a charity. In 1905, Mr. Fox revisited England and was everywhere enthusiastically received when he appeared to tell of the great reform work started by him here in California.

DR. NATHAN SINAI .- A public official of Stockton who enjoys the esteem and confidence of everyone, is Nathan Sinai, the popular health officer of the city, who was born, a native son, in Stockton, on November 28, 1894, the youngest of a family of seven children born to Max and Sophia Sinai, early settlers of Stockton, where the father has been a merchant for many years. Nathan Sinai attended the public schools and was graduated from the Stockton

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high school with the class of 1911. After that he matriculated at the University of California, and in 1915 stepped forth as a graduate of that world-famous institution. Becoming a veterinary surgeon, he went in for a general practice of his profession, and when he had established an enviable reputation he entered the employ of the Public Health Service as a food inspector. He was by this time just the man wanted for efficient work in the World War; and having taken the U. S. Army examinations in 1917, he was appointed second lieutenant and later first lieutenant in the Veterinary Corps at Chicago and Camp Kear- ney, and was in charge of food inspections. In 1918 he was honorably discharged, whereupon he returned to Stockton and resumed work as city food inspector.

In October, 1921, Dr. Sinai was appointed by the City Commissioners health officer for Stockton; and his assumption of the responsibilities involved was the more interesting because he was the youngest man to hold that office in the state. The appoint- ment met with general commendation and endorse- ment, and in the trying interval Dr. Sinai has more than made good. Under his administration the sani- tary condition of the city has greatly improved, and Stockton is more than ever able to make its appeal as a home center. Dr. Sinai is a member of the Forest- ers of America, Reno Lodge No. 597, B. P. O. E., as well as Stockton Lodge of Odd Fellows.

JAMES C. SOMMERS .- A popular official of the progressive Stockton Chamber of Commerce who has proven himself to be doubly efficient because far- seeing and particularly wide-awake, is James C. Som- mers, the manager of the traffic department of that well-managed organization. He was born in Hope, Kans., on September 13, 1890, and attended the public schools at Ellsworth and Abilene in that state. He entered the employ of the Union Pacific Railroad at Ellsworth, and continued in various positions with that great company until he came further westward in 1912. At San Francisco he engaged with the South- ern Pacific Railroad Company, and then he removed to Sacramento, in order to continue Southern Pacific work there. In each of these cities he established a reputation for both knowing the field of railroad en- deavor and problems, and for working unselfishly to give the public that satisfaction which comes only when the public realizes the great service to civiliza- tion constantly performed by the railroads.

In 1916 Mr. Sommers came to Stockton to assume the responsibility of assistant traffic manager with the Chamber of Commerce of this city; and the next year he was appointed manager of the traffic department. He joined the 118th Corps, U. S. Engineers, and he saw ten months of service on the front in France. After the armistice his company ran the first train into Verdun. He thus returned to the United States much richer in experience of a kind likely to be help- ful in his particular line of work.

The traffic department of the Chamber of Com- merce covers in its supervision and activity a wide and most useful field. It establishes rates with the railroad companies for the local manufacturing com- panies, handling the checking of their accounts and filing any claims against the transportation compan- ies; while the community work includes the adjust- ment of rates for local merchants on freight to and from Stockton; and it also includes the adjusting of rates for competitive centers, making them to con-

form with local rates. It confers with projectors of new industries, contemplating the possibility of locating in Stockton, and by going over the ground thoroughly with the parties interested, endeavors to show the advantages of making Stockton their head- quarters. It also handles the loss and damage claims of local shippers-a very important branch of the Chamber of Commerce work which has come to the fore in recent years. Mr. Sommers has been able repeatedly to give entire satisfaction to local mer- chants and manufacturers having such claims. In this ambition he has been assisted to a great extent through his years of invaluable experience with the great railroad companies, whose ways he understands, and with whom he has the greater influence because he knows how to go about it to give satisfaction to both sides, and thus to bring them together in har- monious working. Mr. Sommers is a live wire in the American Legion of Stockton, belonging to Karl Ross Posť; and he is also a popular member of Stockton Lodge No. 218, B. P. O. Elks.

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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 212

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