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 62

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 62

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The time of harvest was from late in June until September, as the wheat crop was heavy and each farmer had to wait his turn for the harvesting of the crop, as the number of threshing machines were limited. The hay was all cut and stacked before this date and most of the barley. The early pioneers cut their wheat with a sickle as did the Egyptians of old and threshed it out Mexican fashion. They built a round corral, covered it thick with wheat stalks and then turning in a band of horses kept them moving until they had trampled out the wheat. It was winnowed in large pans in a heavy wind by throwing up the wheat, when the chaff would blow away. Then came the reaper and binder, a method used today along the coast. In my recollec- tion the header was used, the four horses pushing the machine in front of them. The long knife working rapidly in a horizontal po- sition would cut a wide swath of wheat and falling on the draper or wide canvas would be carried to the header wagon moving along- side the header spout. When filled the header wagon would be driven to the stack where

stood the threshing machine. Then the men would unload the wagon with common pitch- forks. Then the hay fork came into use, un- loading a wagon in five minutes. Then four header wagons were used and the header never rested. The thresher was run by horsepower. Later it was run by steam power, the farmer furnishing wood for fuel. Then came the straw burning machines, using the straw for fuel Finally the combined harvester was invented which, going into a field of grain, cut, threshed and sacked the grain, leaving it on the ground as the monster machine moved on.

Wheat Transportation and Prices

The wheat threshed, the farmer left it in the field until it was sold. The spendthrift farmer sold his wheat immediately to get the money to pay his debts. He was compelled to take the market price, always low at harvest time. The thrifty rancher held his crop until there was a rising market. The wheat was always placed in sacks averaging in weight 120 1bs. The purchase of sacks was quite an expense, running from twelve to eighteen cents apiece. During the Grange movement in the '70's a law was passed installing a jute mill in San Quentin, the prisoners running the looms. Since that time the state has been furnishing the farmers grain sacks at a little more than cost. Previous to that time speců- lators in San Francisco would buy up all of the jute, which comes from India, and the farmers were compelled to pay their price. Strange as it may appear, the price of wheat in San Joaquin was governed by the price in Liverpool, England, which was the world market. Every day the Stockton Independ- ent through the harvest season, would pub- lish the price of wheat at the wheat cen- ter, also the price quoted in California by the bull and bear speculators of San Fran- cisco. It is recorded that in March, 1859, John H. Cole and Jonathan H. Dodge, two thrifty farmers, sold their wheat at $2.25 per hundred. It was the highest sale price of wheat to my knowledge and the press empha- sized the fact that the 175 tons was "sold in one lot." Years later a thousand tons in one lot was no unusual sale. Limited transporta- tion and a small population effected the price of wheat. Then when transportation was speedy and the population greatly increased, large wheat fields were opened up in Canada, Russia and India, and San Joaquin was com- pelled to compete with the world. In August, 1873, a choice lot of seed wheat sold at $1.75 per cental. At the same time there were nine- teen ships aggregating 18,000 tons loading with wheat for foreign ports, and to get these ships off on time, extra prices were offered for wheat, $1.75 per cental.

320

HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

This brings us up to transportation. The farmers not only in San Joaquin but in Stani- slaus County were compelled to bring all of their wheat on sale to Stockton, either by teams or water. A farmer living ten miles out could bring only one load a day to the warehouse, and that only during the dry sea- son. I have seen the levee year after year crowded with teams waiting their turn to unload their wheat in the warehouse. From the adjoining county small steamers, towing barges would bring it to Stockton. Then came the railroad. The San Joaquin River steamers were put out of business, and the farmer profited thereby. He took his wheat to the stations. in a few days it was all safely housed in the warehouse, and at any time he could sell on a rising market. Wheat came in at a lively rate after the railroad came, immense barges carrying 1,000 tons were built, and lying alongside the ocean vessels they would be unloaded. Large Stockton warehouses were erected, housing in all 24,000 tons. It was a sight to see thousands of square feet of space packed solidly thirty feet high with grain.

A Few Figures

In 1869 the census marshal reported 13,475 horses, 1,000 mules, 4,250 cows, 4,500 calves, 7,250 beef cattle, and 36,000 sheep. It also re- ported 275,000 acres of fenced land, and about 200,000 acres of this land under cultivation. There was 117,000 acres in wheat which pro- duced 1,521,000 bushels ; 29,640 acres in barley yielding 622,482 bushels and 24,675 acres cut for hay producing 32,850 tons.

In 1880 San Joaquin County raised the largest wheat crop in the world. In 1883 it was not far behind, the crop being 3,414,970 bushels. To a layman these figures are scarce- ly noticeable but when you say that it would take 1,024 freight cars ten tons each to trans- port the crop, then they may take notice. The same year the soil produced 1,200,000 bushels of barley 20,000 bushels of oats and thousands of tons of fruit and vegetables. That year there were 12,406 horses, worth on an average $55 each, 1,585 mules worth 100 each, and 56,478 sheep at an average of $1.25, and 4,202 cows, average $30. Again in 1884 248,350 acres were under cultivation and the harvest in wheat alone was 3,729,250 bushels. 600,300 bushels of barley were also raised. The horses in the county numbered 14,752 at $50 each, mules 1,892 valued at $108 apiece, 4,261 cows worth on an average $32 apiece, and 42,798 sheep at $1.45.

Advancing along the years to 1922, we find a complete change in the production of the county. Wheat is no longer king for it has been superseded by barley, potatoes and

grapes. These three crops alone were valued at $31,000,000. Even at that the county "ranks fourth in all of the counties of the nation in agricultural products, and first among the fifty-eight counties of the state in wheat, bar- ley and corn." It is far ahead as the greatest potato producing county in the world. In the nation, in grapes harvested it ranks third; it is fourth in vegetables, aside from potatoes, fifth in hay and forage; sixth in its production of beans and dairy products; and tenth in chickens and poultry. According to the cen- sus bureau of 1920 the crops of San Joaquin County were valued as follows :

Cereals $10,748,208

Other Grains and Seeds. 3,067,428

Vegetables

9,989,852

Hay and Forage.

4,497,117

Fruits and Nuts.

9,432,595

All Other Crops. 221,666

Value of Dairy Products.

2,340,938

Value of Poultry.

377,558

Value of Honey and Wax 28,516

Value of Wool. 105,593

In 1920 there were 4500 farms in San Joa- quin County, an increase of 1214 over 1910. There are 926,720 acres of land in the county of which area 706,308 is in farms. The value of all farm property increased from $67,286,628 in 1910 to $140,702,764 in 1920. The value of farm buildings is set at $11,731,875; imple- ments and machinery at $5,855,919, and live- stock at $7,329,162.

Farming Machinery Inventions

We have recorded the immense crops raised in San Joaquin County during the past years, but do you realize the fact that these crops could not have been grown were it not for the improved machinery that preceded their growth. It is an old saying that "time and tide wait for no man," neither does the weath- er. It rains and the farmer must plow and sow his seed within a certain time or he gets no crop. The rains may be long delayed, then he must hurry. There may be very heavy rains and then in the adobe soil he must wait until the ground dries out. Often he had less than two months to do his plowing. Then the gang plow was invented enabling him to plow four times the amount of land he could plow in former times. Now with the traction engine he has beat out Nature, for he can plow at any time, rain or no rain.

The plow is an old as civilization and we have all seen illustrations of the Egyptian plow, a long timber shod with an iron point and drawn by two oxen with a long bar fast- ened to their horns. Our forefathers used a single plow drawn by one horse, sufficient for them, for their plowing fields were small. But plowing from 160 to 1,000 acres within the

---

321

HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

time limit was an impossibility. In 1854 Perry Yaple of Stockton, later of Ripon, claims that he made the first improved plow in the state. It consisted of three single plows so set that they plowed a. furrow three times the width of a single plow. It was known as a gang plow. Don Carlos Matteson, who was always inventing or improving some kind of machin- ery, in 1867 invented a reversible gang plow. In 1881, Dr. Christopher Grattan, who gave up practice and took up farming, invented a double gang plow. It cut a furrow eight feet in width, and in August of that year J. H. Cole, using seven horses, plowed 100 acres in four and one-half days, and using twelve horses to a twelve-foot gang plow two men plowed thirty acres in two days.

The farmer cut his crop of wheat, barley or oats, much cheaper for hay than for grain, as he saved the expense of threshing. A cer- tain amount of hay was necessary to feed his own stock and that of the county, and there have been times when hay was worth more than wheat. Haying time began in the month of April and ended in May. When cut the hay was gathered from the soil by a clumsy wooden rake, the driver of the horse walking behind and lifting the rake off when a certain amount of hay had been gathered. Then a high-wheeled rake was invented with a long, steel curved tooth. It picked up a common wagon load of hay, which was released by a spring. At first the hay was stacked by men with the common pitchfork. Then the four- tined hay fork was invented. By use of a der- rick and one horse and handled by an expert, for the fork weighed over 100 pounds, it would quickly unload the header wagon, and the stack could be raised much higher than by the old way. Thomas Powell in 1874 in- vented a rope net for the stacking of hay and grain. The net was laid in the bottom of the header and the entire load lifted at one time. It was not a success.

From Reaper to Combined Harvester

The wheat, barley or oats, stacked from twenty to thirty feet in height, awaited the coming of the threshing crew, for while every farmer had header wagons only a few owned threshing machines. The first threshing machine in the county, 1852, is said to have been owned by Wm. McKee Carson, a farmer living three miles out on the Lower Sacra- mento Road. His family still occupy the place. All of the machines were imported by sailing vessels from the east. Ross C. Sar- gent owned the second machine in 1853. In order to give briefly the history of the com- bined harvester we must go back to 1857. At that time A. L. Cressey, who died last year in Modesto, says that he worked on Dr. Grat- 21

tan's ranch binding grain after the cradler. One day D. C. Matteson came from Stockton to test out the first reaper ever built in the state. He says, "It was a wonderful contriv- ance." Cressey drove the machine, and by cutting their neighbors' grain they made suffi- cient money to purchase it. Two years later a newspaper correspondent wrote, "The reaper, newly invented by Matteson and Wil- liamson, will be the reaper of the state. The entire machine is of Stockton manufacture and Mr. Matteson says he has three com- pleted and intends to hurry up all he can before the harvest." "This reaper," says Don Carlos in 1860, "was quickly knocked out by the headers at a loss to me of $2,000." The headers which I have already described were used for twenty years. During that time the combined harvester was being perfected, a ma- chine that superseded all the reapers, headers and threshing machines in the state, where dry weather crops were raised on level land. Where the air is damp, such as along the coast counties, the farmers are compelled to use reapers and binders. The originator of the combined harvester was an uneducated farmer named David J. Martin, who made his first machine on the ranch of H. H. Thurston some twelve miles north of Stockton on the Lockeford Road. I had the pleasure of seeing the machine and it was an odd looking affair · of wood, iron and canvas. Like all combined machines it took some time to get any results worth while, but in August, 1867, the press said, "This machine is considered as one of the greatest labor-saving machines ever in- vented." Two years later the Independent said, "The machine with three men and twelve horses will cut, thresh and sack the grain from ten to twelve acres a day. On Friday it cut, threshed and sacked 300 bushels of wheat. The header operates a knife eight feet in length and the separator cylinder is two feet eight inches long." It cost $1,200. In 1873 it had been so improved that it cut twenty acres of grain a day. In 1878 J. C. Hoult and David Young invented a combined harvester. It weighed 7,000 pounds, rested on two broad iron wheels, and was sold at $2,000 each. Along in the '80s L. U. Shippee, Ben F. Langford, R. C. Sargent, and others formed a company, and erecting a large build- ing corner of Main and East streets began the manufacture of combined harvesters. One night it mysteriously caught fire, destroying some seventy large harvesters. Some years later Ben C. Holt and his brother, who began manufacturing wagon wheels on the site of the old Catholic burial ground, bought up all of the patents on the combined harvester and began turning them out and shipping them to all parts of the world. They made many

322

HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

improvements, and now have a machine that cuts a swathe from eighteen to twenty-four feet wide and will cut from forty to sixty acres a day, the machine costing $4,225.

With the combined harvester the number of bushels threshed cuts no figure, for if the crop be light then necessarily the number of bushels threshed would be small. The threshing machine sitting by the side of a heavy yield of grain would often thresh a very large number of bushels, and it is recorded that in September, 1872, J. C. Kerr of Lockeford, using a Ray & Scott separator and a straw burning engine in forty and one- half days. threshed out 70,000 bushels of wheat. During eighteen days of that time he threshed 37,000 bushels, and on the Jacob Brack farm, six miles west of Woodbridge, in one hour and twenty-one minutes. he threshed out 800 bushels.

The Grange Movement

Today we read of the farmer's bloc, a demand for the farmer certain rights and privileges. The movement is nothing new. In the early '70s organizations were formed throughout the United States known as the Grange or Patrons of Husbandry. The mem- bership was limited to the farmers, their wives and children. The movement was organized to dethrone the speculators, de- mand a lower tariff and railroad charges .. The Stockton Grange was organized August 12, 1873, with twenty farmers and ten women under the following officers: Andrew Wolf, master ; W. L. Overheiser, overseer; Thomas E. Ketchum, lecturer ; Albert Showers, stew- ard; Thomas E. Brooke, chaplain; Freeman Mills, treasurer; Wm. G. Phelps, secretary ; James Marsh, gatekeeper; J. F. Harrison, S. V. Tredway, W. D. Ashley, trustees; Mrs. Alexander Burkett, Ceres; Mrs. W. L. Over- heiser, Pomona; Mrs. J. T. Brooke, Flora ; and Mrs. James Marsh, assistant stewards. Additional members were John H. Cole, George West, H. E. Wright, Alex Burkett, Charles Sperry, Israel Landers, P. W. Dud- ley, John Taylor, W. H. Fairchilds, M. Showers and Wm. Mason. There were six granges in the county.

The Delta or Peat Lands

To the west of Stockton there lies several hundred thousand acres which at one time was swamp and overflow land. In San Joa- quin lies 188,000 acres of this tule land. For twenty years this land was thought to be of no value except as the home of ducks, geese and wild hogs, but since its reclamation expert agriculturists have pronounced it the richest land in the world, equal to if not supe- rior to the diked land of Holland. Hence it

is sometimes called "The Holland of Amer- ica." A small portion of this land at the con- fluence of Stockton Channel and the San Joaquin River has been under cultivation since 1850. At that time the editor of the Stockton Times wrote, "The ordinary observer who travels over the San Joaquin River, as his eyes survey the vast expanse of tule or marsh land extending for miles on either bank, may receive the impression that it is unfit for agri- cultural purposes and uncultivable except for rice. Now this is an error: By invitation of the Weber Regatta Club we joined them in an excursion to Rough and Ready ranch. It comprises some ten or twelve acres of tule land which has been enclosed and recovered. On this land has been produced every species of vegetable at present grown in California. The land is owned by Mr. Downie and he states that in five months the tract had pro- duced 2,000 head of cabbage, 3,000 musk melons, 30 bushels of tomatoes, 1,000 pounds of onions, 20,000 pounds of potatoes, 200 bushels of corn, 2,000 pounds of squashes and pumpkins, together with a large quantity of peppers, beans, radishes, beets, etc. No irri- gation is needed from the river as the soil is of a peculiar permeable nature, and fresh water is always found within two or three feet of the surface. We have no doubt that in a few years the tule land will comprehend the finest cultivated portion of California." In 1858 the island was in the possession of the Crozier brothers; one of them, James Crozier, having been a Stockton blacksmith. He raised the land three feet above high water, built a house, put in a steam pumping plant and set out about 1,000 fruit trees of every kind. He invited his friends to visit him and the editor declaring, "The beautiful little spot has been the stopping place for the many parties that enjoyed the sport of sailing." At his death in the '80s the prop- erty by will passed into the hands of Wm. C. Daggett. He died, and George Buck pur- chased the property and built a handsome residence ; he sold it to Frank Guernsey when elected county judge. This is the beginning of the Delta lands now worth millions of dollars.

Beginning of Reclamation

The Napoleon gardens were partly re- claimed in 1853. In 1857 George Drew, the county surveyor, began the survey of 30,000 acres of land lying on both sides of the San Joaquin River, surveying from a point one mile west of the city to the mouth of the Mo- kelumne River, the survey being made in connection with the U. S. survey. He said that application for the land had been made by parties in San Francisco." In November,

----

-- -- - -- 1 i 1

323

HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

1860, the surveyor in his report said, "The interest in this description of property is steadily increasing as it will soon become an important part of our territory.". In 1872 A. Rowell conceived from the production on Rough and Ready island that the tule lands could be made very productive; he formed a company and began reclaiming the land on the south side of the river. They began by digging ditches from eight to sixteen feet wide and throwing up the levee. A huge Newton pump was' installed to draw off the water. In 1874 the paper reported, "The work of reclaiming the tide lands on the San Joaquin River and its tributaries is being pushed forward with energy. Among the most enterprising is the company known as Reclamation Company No. 162, consisting of C. C. Castle, George H. Smith, Sam Ward- robe, Jacob Wagner, C. M. Ritter, J. J. Ste- venson, B. F. Sanders, Henry Barnhart, C. H. Cowell. The land embraces 10,968 acres, extending from the Sacramento Road to the mouth of the Calaveras River, then along the San Joaquin to Twenty-one Mile slough, fol- lowing up said river to the place of begin- ning." There was to be over nineteen miles of levee twelve feet at the bottom, eight feet on top, and five feet high, placed thirty-five feet from the river. The estimated cost was $1,200 per mile. In September, 1881, the Glascow Company came from England with John W. Ferris as their engineer. They bought a large quantity of unreclaimed land and taking no advice proposed to show how to build levees. They spent a million' or more dollars, placing their levees near the river bank. There came an immense flood of water, their levees broke through and the company went broke.

After thousands of dollars had been lost they built their levees as far back as possible, brought up solid earth from the river bottom to build the levees and dug a wide deep ditch to relieve the heavy overflow. These ditches also served as waterways for transportation. The building of the Santa Fe Railroad across the entire tract also gave splendid facilities for transportation. The islands now produce nearly half of the potatoes raised in the state, together with hundreds of tons of celery, onions, beans, asparagus, berries, and other fruits. In writing of the potato crop, J. M. Bigger, himself an island dairy farmer for several years, said, "These peat lands grow most of the potatoes of California. The an- nual production is from four to five million bushels, which is more than any other county in the United States produces except one. Big crops of Indian corn are grown in the Delta. This county doubled and trebled its corn pro-

duction each year for the past four years and this year it will produce 1,500,000 bushels."

Ex-President John M. Perry, of the Cali- fornia Agricultural Society, himself a large Delta land owner, said in writing of levees, "In the early days these levees were known as 'China' levees and were constructed by Chinamen with shovels and wheelbarrows. H. U. Kip, a Chinaman, in a magazine article in 1921, said: "The peculiar nature of the soil would make an interesting story in itself. It represents the years of an accumulation of tules. It burns; it floats; but it is intensely rich." The problem was one of reclamation. It was in 1870 that the Chinese first commeneced farming on Sherman Island, and they re- mained there until the flood of 1878. They worked Staten Island in 1881, then to Bouldin Island. Roberts Island was worked from 1878 to 1884 by Ah Jack, Lew Man, Tong Wo and Lee Louie. Again quoting John M. Perry, "Most of the labor was done in former years almost exclusively by Chinese, but of later years by Japanese, Hindus, Mexicans and Chinamen." The holdings were originally very large and it is only lately that these lands have been put on the market in smaller farms. One of these large holders is the Rindge Company of Los Angeles, and they rent their land to Japanese. The brightest of them all at one time was George Shima, a Japanese, the king of the potato market. He came to San Joaquin County some fifteen years ago and began working on the islands as a common laborer. He saved his money, began renting land, studied the most effective way of raising crops, studied the market prices and became wealthy. It was said he could get more work out of a Jap than any white man, and always on the job he watches every point. In the height of his money making he was feted by the leading citizens of Stockton and tendered a banquet in the Lincoln Hotel. Later he purchased a hand- some home for his wife and two children in the fine residence section of Berkeley. Then there was a howl, but their attorney said there was no way to prevent a respectable Japan- ese from purchasing a residence in "the classic town" of Berkeley.

Shiftless Farmers and Thrifty Farmers

Unfortunately for San Joaquin County a majority of the farmers who located here were men from the far Western and Southern states. They were a body of honest and brave men but with no great ambition in their make up. To sow a little grain each year, enough to make a living, was all they attempted. If their crop was poor or failed entirely, they never worried, they let their butcher, grocer and mortgagee do the worrying. They built

324

HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

shacks of houses and barns and, never im- proved, remodeled or even painted them. They planted no orchards, vineyards, shade trees, plants or flowers, nor raised any fine breed of cattle, horses, sheep, hogs or poultry. Their cattle were half wild and their horses of the mustang breed. My father, a meat seller, asked them, "Why don't you raise a fine breed of cattle ?" "Oh," they raplied, "It's too much trouble." They sold cattle for $15 or $20 a head while they might have raised cattle, costing no more for feed, to sell at $40 or $60 a head. They bought all of their vegetables and fruits used in the house and some even purchased their butter. There were milch cows running around the house but they had no milk. "It's too much trouble to milk them," said a man living on the sand plains. Is it surprising that they were pover- ty-stricken all their lives and that their sons and daughters left the farm as soon as possi- ble?

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 62

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