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 95

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 95

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In February, 1849, Mr. Walsh and a party of men from his vicinity in New York left there under the guidance of Mr. Audubon, the naturalist, for the long trip to California. They had only pack animals and saddle horses and chose the Southern route as being the best at that time of year, and after eleven months the party arrived in the gold fields of the state. Mr. Walsh spent about a year in the mining districts, meeting with indifferent success, which possibly de- cided him that ranching was a surer way to independ- ence than hunting for the shining metal. In 1851 he came down into San Joaquin County and bought out a squatter's right to 160 acres of land on the Water- loo road and here began stockraising and some gen- eral farming. As usual with the pioneer, he suffered many, discouragements; but he stuck to his work and began making a name and place for himself in his community. He sent back to New York for his fam- ily, who joined him in 1853, arriving on April 22. With his neighbor, Mr. Kenyon, Mr. Walsh built the first schoolhouse in that part of the county on land owned by G. Moore. The school is known today as the Moore School. Mr. Walsh, Mr. Kenyon and Jacob Peters were the first trustees. When the new building was erected it was built on land donated by Mr. Walsh. In 1862, the year of the flood in this county, the people of the section about the Walsh ranch ran out of supplies. They built a boat, and starting from Walsh's house rowed direct to Stockton to the stores for their supplies, and out into the open and back to the ranches. It was the custom to lay in enough supplies in the fall to last all winter, for the roads were impassable during the winter months.

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The dry year followed in 1864; then the ranchers had to go to the tule lands to cut hay for their stock, and it was during the travel back and forth that Mr. Walsh lost his life, falling from the boat and being drowned on September 6, 1864. Mrs. Walsh lived to reach the good old age of eighty-eight, dying Novem- ber 22, 1892.

Alice M. Walsh was born in Dublin, Ireland, in September, 1838, and when four years old was brought to America by her parents, who located on Manhattan Island, New York State, and there she was reared and educated. In 1853, she accompanied her mother and three brothers to California. She well remembers the day they left New York for Brooklyn to spend a couple of days with an aunt be- fore leaving the East. It was March 17, and the St. Patrick's Day parade halted their little party several times in passing. They left Brooklyn the 19th, and arriving at Nicaragua crossed to the Pacific side, and from there came on to San Francisco. She was then in her sixteenth year and the events of the long journey are stamped indelibly on her mind. The arrival of the family on the ranch in San Joaquin County was an event. It was known that Mr. Walsh expected his family, and in that family was a young lady; and young ladies being very few in number here, the whole population turned out to greet them as they made their way to the ranch home.

In February, 1855, Miss Walsh was united in mar- riage with John H. Tone, born in New York in March, 1826, and reared in the locality where the Walsh family had settled upon arrival in this country. He was a member of the same party of gold-seekers as was Mr. Walsh, and he mined with fairly good success for about a year, when he turned to agricul- ture and bought government land in San Joaquin County, in 1850. He had three partners, each buying 160 acres; but Mr. Tone finally bought out two of his friends and became the owner of 480 acres, all of which is still in the possession of the family. He be- came very well-known and did his part to help build up San Joaquin County, and by his death, on June 12, 1902, the county lost a progressive citizen and the family a devoted husband and father. Mr. Tone was a member of the Stockton Society of California Pio- neers, and was a man whose word was as good as his bond.

The marriage of John H. Tone with Miss Alice M. Walsh resulted in the birth of the following children: Mary Elizabeth, widow of John T. Doyle, is the mother of two daughters, Alice T., and Gertrude, of Stockton; Margaret F. married Samuel Storer, and they have two sons, Walter T., who was purser on the boats running from San Pedro to Catalina until the World War, and then was on the "President," taken over by the government and put in service be- tween San Francisco and Honolulu, carrying troops and supplies; and Theodore J., who saw service in France with the anti-aircraft department. John N. Tone lives on the old home place, and has six chil- dren: Margaret, Alice, John H., Mary, Richard N., and Theodore T. Catherine married Frank B Cluff of Berkeley, and has one daughter, Elizabeth, now the wife of Homer Gordon. Ella is the wife of Rob- ert Benjamin, and resides on part of the Tone ranch; she has three children: Robert, Elecia and Theodosia. Anna is the wife of Harvey J. Condit, of Stanislaus County, and the mother of three daughters: Jane, Helen and Patricia. One daughter, Alice, died in

1920; and another daughter, Laura, died at the age of five years. To such women as Mrs. Tone the coun- try owes a debt of gratitude; for they have done their part to raise the standard of society, to make their children useful, and also to inculcate patriotism in the generations to come.

GEORGE HOLDSWORTH .- A highly-esteemed pioneer whom posterity will always delight to honor, and whom Californians, ever mindful of what they owe to those who "made straight the paths in early days," will certainly never forget, was the late George Holdsworth, who breathed his last in Stock- ton on December 6, 1921, having attained to his eightieth year. He was born in Halifax, England, on September 7, 1842, and came of good old English stock, than which none better ever helped to found and develop a New World. His father, also named George Holdsworth, was a genuine '49er who reached California in the thrilling Argonaut days, but early settled in Stockton where he engaged in teaming- one of those occupations at that time essential to the welfare of almost everybody, and to no one more than to the gold-digger himself. He furnished sand for building operations, first transporting the same from the islands in a scow, and hauled the first load of sand used in the construction of the first building of the State Hospital on North California Street.

Our subject was seven years of age when the family settled at Kenosha, Wis., where he grew up and attended the public schools, and learned the trade of carriage painter in Ed. Bane's carriage shop. He arrived in Stockton on November 13, 1859, and soon after went to work for William Miller, the well-known carriage manufacturer and a carriage painter. He was employed at his trade for thirty years at the Miller factory at the southwest corner of Channel and California streets, where the Sequoia apartments now stand; and he enjoyed the friendship and entire confi- dence of his employer throughout the long years of their association together. For a short time, about a year, he was in business for himself, in a shop in the St. Charles Hotel building; and at one time he owned a ranch at Wallace, in Calaveras County. Before the advent of the railroads, also, he drove a pedler's wagon through the mountain towns, selling tinware, clothing and shoes, and the old wagon he drove stands today in the barn back of his old home, at 136 East Church Street .. The old home, now standing, was built by him over fifty years ago, and it is in a fair state of preservation. He worked with his father in early days supplying sand for building materials in Stockton, and at one time was employed on the river steamer "Pert." After giving up carriage painting, he followed teaming in Stockton for a number of years, and became well known and highly esteemed by his fellow-citizens. He was a member of the old Volunteer Fire Department, and later the Exempt Firemen's Association.

At Stockton, in the year 1866, Mr. Holdsworth mar- ried Miss Mary Robertson, a native of San Francisco, where she was born in 1849, the daughter of a Cali- fornia pioneer who died in August, 1902. Eleven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Holdsworth, and three died in childhood. Edward, however, reached the age of forty-six; Lulu, the age of twenty-one; and James the age of twelve. The five living children are: William, the pilot of the steamer, J. D. Peters; Charles, a teaming contractor of Stockton, who start-

Ger Holdsworth

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

ed as a boy of thirteen, and joined his father in team- ing, later taking over the business for himself; Thom- as, who is a member of the fire department of Stock- ton; George, who is employed in house-moving, with Fisher Bros .; and Miss Sadie I. Holdsworth, who was married February 3, 1922, to Mr. Walter M. Zwinge and resides at 138 Church Street, the old home place. All were born in Stockton save Thomas, who first saw the light in Calaveras County. During the latter years of Mr. Holdsworth's life, he enjoyed the loving care and attention of his devoted daughter, Sadie, who kept house for him and nursed him through his illness, and who otherwise rendered the service of affection, without money and without price, because no worldly value can ever be placed upon such divine ministrations.

CHARLES WAGNER .- San Joaquin County will never forget the important part played by her far- sighted and experienced manufacturers, among the more prominent of whom was Charles Wagner, late president of the Wagner Leather Company, operat- ing the Pacific Tannery. He was born in Wurtem- burg, Germany, January 23, 1837, a son of Chris- tian and Johanna (Gunsser) Wagner. His father was a tanner, and his grandfather, John Wagner, was in charge of his great-grandfather's tannery in Balingen, Wurtemburg, to which business Christian also succeeded; so that at least five successive gen- erations of the Wagner family have followed the tannery business. Both the father and the grand- father of the subject of this sketch lived to an ad- vanced age, as did Grandmother Wagner also. Grand- father Christian Gunsser, a public surveyor and school teacher, was sixty-five years old at his death, but his wife reached the age of ninety-two. The moth- er. Johanna (Gunsser) Wagner, lived to the age of sixty-two years.

Charles Wagner attended school until he was fif- teen years old, and then learned his father's business. He left Wurtemburg in the fall of 1855 for California, coming on the ship "Bavaria," from Havre, France, to New York, thence by steamer "Northern Light" to Chagres, across the Isthmus on mule back, and then by steamer to San Francisco, where he arrived January 19, 1856. Proceeding to the mines by way of Stockton, he made one month's trial at mining in Calaveras County, near what is now Copperopolis. The result being unsatisfactory, he returned to Stock- ton and with his brother, Jacob C. Wagner, started the Pacific Tannery on a very small scale, in which he was interested up to the time of his death.

In 1859, desiring to perfect himself in his trade, Mr. Wagner left Stockton for San Francisco and other parts of the state where tanning industries were carried on, and finally worked for eighteen months in the tanneries at Santa Cruz, where at that time the best article of leather was made. After an absence of two years he returned to his labor in the tannery here, which was established by himself and brother in 1856; continuing to manufacture, in 1865 they adopted the firm name of Wagner Bros.

In 1869 Jacob C. Wagner retired and Moses Kull- man became a partner, under the title of Kullman, Wagner & Company. In 1879 Herman, a brother of Moses Kullman, was admitted into partnership, and in 1874 Jacob Salz purchased an interest. Moses Kullman, at his death, November 6, 1878. bequeathed one-half of his interest to his brother Herman, and the other half to a nephew, Charles Hart, who thus

became a member of the firm. The Pacific Tannery has thus been an important industry of the city of Stockton for sixty-seven years. Pure tanned Cali- fornia oak scoured sole leather, in hard and pliable tannage, is a special feature of their output, great quantities of this valuable product being produced and exported to the world's markets. The com- pany ranks today as one of the greatest of western leather manufacturing and distributing organizations, and is a prominent factor in the industrial life of Stockton. For more than half a century the company were extensive producers of harness leather, but in 1919 this feature was discontinued. The demand for the Stockton product from all parts of the civilized world is one of the big development factors of this section of California, and to properly care for the in- creasing sole-leather trade a general branch office and sales department are maintained in San Francisco, whence the export trade is handled.

Since the establishment of the business in 1856, the Wagner Leather Company have been growing stead- ily year by year, new buildings and equipment being added until it has become a notable institution in manufacturing and industrial circles of California and the West. The original tannery was incepted by the late Charles Wagner, father of Edward C. Wag- ner, present directing head of the company, which is capitalized for $300,000 and has a payroll of more than $100,000 a year. In 1918 a disastrous fire de- stroyed the main portion of the plant. Business, how- ever, continued right along, and in a few months modern and well-equipped new buildings were erect- ed and machinery installed, each machine equipped with an electric motor of the latest type, power be- ing furnished by the company's own generating plant. This gives the company production facilities one- third greater than before, a big item in these days of progress, when there is such a wide demand for Wagner-made sole leather.

Mr. Wagner was married in Stockton in 1867, to Miss Philipina Simon, born in Bosenback, Bavaria, in 1846. She was a daughter of Jacob and Katrina (Rothenbush) Simon, now deceased, the mother dy- ing in 1866 and the father in 1867, both well advanced in years. Mr. and Mrs. Wagner are the parents of two children. Edward C. is the president of the Wagner Leather Company; and Bertha W. is the wife of George E. Housken of Stockton, who is treasurer of the corporation. Fraternally Mr. Wag- ner was a member of Stockton Lodge No. 11, Odd Fellows, and the last of the charter members of the Stockton Turnverein, of which he was a trustee. At various times he was president of that society. He was an advanced liberal in his views, and a progressive man in all realms of thought. He passed away on October 17, 1912, at the age of seventy-five years. He was a man of fine character, broad- minded, and with a keen desire for the community's betterment morally, commercially and educationally.

HENRY B. BUDD .- One of the esteemed and helpful citizens of Stockton is Henry B. Budd, a rep- resentative of the distinguished family of that name. His father and grandfather won distinction as pro- minent jurists in San Joaquin County; and an uncle, Hon. James H. Budd, was governor of California. Henry B. Budd was born in Stockton, Cal., on Jan- uary 12, 1877, a son of John E. and Mary (Haste) Budd, natives of Wisconsin and California, respec- tively. John E. Budd was born in Janesville, Wis., in

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1853, being the second son of Hon. Joseph H. and Lucinda (Ash) Budd, descendants of Eastern an- cestors. John E. Budd came to California in early life and received his education here, and was grad- uated from the University of California in 1874. He studied law in his father's office, and in 1876 was ad- mitted to the bar, and at one time was associated with his brother, Hon. James H. Budd, ex-governor of California, in the practice of his profession. He became well known and influential in his practice and in politics. Mr. Budd married Miss Mary Haste, of Berkeley, in 1887, a daughter of J. H. Haste, an honored pioneer of the state and for many years a public-spirited citizen of Berkeley. They were the parents of three children. Both parents are now de- ceased, Mrs. Budd having survived her husband until May 1, 1921.

Henry B. Budd, the only son of his parents, was educated in the Stockton grammar and high schools, and in 1898 was graduated from the University of California with the B. S. degree. After his gradua- tion, he became associated with the chemical depart- ment of the State Mining Bureau in San Francisco, and during the two years of his connection with this department, devoted his time to the study of assay- ing. He then located in Sierra County and became surveyor of the mine belonging to the Croesus Min- ing & Milling Company, engaged in operating the Plumbago Mine, a gold mine in that county. Later he operated a gravel mine of his own. From 1901 to 1905 he was deputy United States mineral sur- veyor, appointed by President Mckinley, his opera- tions extending throughout Sierra and Plumas coun- ties; he also engaged in private practice there.

Upon learning that the Delta lands of San Joaquin County were to be reclaimed, Mr. Budd removed to Stockton and engaged in land surveying on the islands. In 1906, when the Western Pacific Railroad were constructing their line through the valley, he was transitman in the survey of the road. During 1911-1912 he was city surveyor of Stockton, and he has also been engineer for a number of reclamation districts in the valley. His close study of conditions and his years of practical experience relating to the reclamation of land, have made him an authority on the subject, on which he is conceded to be one of the best-posted men in the county.

Mr. Budd has engaged in real estate operations, making a specialty of subdivisions. The following are some of the properties that he has subdivided and put on the market: Lomita Park, twenty-five acres northwest of the city; Merryvale, a subdivision of twenty acres east of Stockton; City Park Garden, a tract of twenty acres, and the Budd Addition to Manteca, consisting of five acres, now a part of the city of Manteca. As manager of the Budd estate, he has erected the Budd Apartments on East Chan- nel Street, Stockton. Aside from his real estate busi- ness, he is the active senior member of the firm of Budd & Widdens, civil engineers, and surveyors, of Stockton, Cal., which firm is favorably known throughout Central California. The consensus of opinion is, they have the largest practice in their profession among the landowners of the fertile sec- tion embraced in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. Mr. Budd's partner, Mr. Charles H. Wid- dons, is the grandson of John Herd, one of the pioneers of the reclamation of the famous San Joa- quin Delta.

The marriage of Mr. Budd united him with Miss Marion R. Browne, of Berkeley, Cal. Fraternally Mr. Budd is a member of Parlor No. 7, N. S. G. W. He is secretary and treasurer of the San Joaquin County Society of Civil Engineers.

AUGUST DANGERS .- One of the earliest pio- neers of Roberts Island who gave of his energy and resourcefulness to the reclaiming and developing of the Island from tule and swamp land until it has become one of the most fertile sections in the state, is the late August Dangers, a man who was highly respected and much loved. He was born in Man- delsbach, Hanover, Germany, September 11, 1833, where he grew to manhood and received a good education in the excellent schools of that country.

When eighteen years of age, in 1851, he made his way to Fredericksburg, Gillespie County, Texas, and in 1854 he was joined by his parents and brothers and sisters and followed farming and cattle ranching. Wishing to obtain good farming land he concluded to investigate conditions in Central America, so in 1859 he made the trip to Panama locating in the Province of Chiriqui. He engaged in raising pine- apples but found he could not dispose of them to advantage on account of the Civil War in the U. S. After about three years he determined to come on to California, arriving in Stockton in 1862. His broth- ers joined him in 1870 and his parents came in 1873. Mr. Dangers engaged in farming and soon afterwards located on Roberts Island where he purchased 320 acres of land and helped to build the levees from the beginning of the reclamation of that island, engaging in raising grain and horses. However, the recur- rence of floods caused him heavy damages and the repeated expense of rebuilding the levee was too much and he met with heavy losses. He spent his last days in Stockton, passing away in 1905 at the age of seventy-nine years.

Mr. Dangers was a well-informed man; always a great reader he was an advanced thinker, particularly on lines pertaining to agriculture. He saw the need for irrigation and of intensive farming for the fertile San Joaquin County lands and how they could be made to yield a big increase by irrigation and that the additional expense necessary to put water on the lands would be returned many fold. He was an advocate of the raising of sugar beets which has since been demonstrated a success in the county. He was a correspondent of the Stockton Independent and his articles were always interesting, showing much thought and reflection.

The marriage of Mr. Dangers occurred in Stock- ton, uniting him with Miss Ida Saloman, a daughter of Max and Mina Saloman, pioneers of San Joaquin County. Mr. Saloman has passed on but his widow is still living, making her home with her grand- daughter, Miss Dangers. Mrs. August Dangers passed away soon after her marriage leaving two daughters, Erna, who died at twenty-six years, and Juanita, the youngest. Being bereaved of her mother in her first year Juanita was reared in the home of her grandmother, Mrs. Mina Saloman, in Stockton. After completing the public schools she entered the employ of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Com- pany and she is still in their employ. She is a mem- ber of the Saturday Afternoon Club.

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A Tengers

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

HON. JAMES HERBERT BUDD .- The ideal life is measured not by years but by intensity, and truly "that life is long which answers life's great end." Gauged by years alone, the career of ex-Gov- ernor Budd was all too brief; but estimated by the amount he accomplished for the welfare of his fel- lowmen, the upbuilding of the commonwealth, and the attainment of needed reforms, his life was long, as it was also brilliant and eventful. In the annals of California his name is entitled to perpetuation. Every station that he held was distinguished by his loyal service. Of him it may be said that he pro- moted the prosperity and exalted the reputation of the state.

He was born at Janesville, Wis., May 18, 1851, and passed away at his residence, 1239 East Channel Street, Stockton, Cal., July 30, 1908, after a vain struggle of years against a fatal disease. With his parents he resided in California after 1858, and in Stockton after 1860, the father, Hon. Joseph H. Budd, becoming one of the successful attorneys of this city and eventually winning distinction as one of the most learned jurists of the state. Upon com- pleting the studies of the Stockton schools, the youth was sent to the Brayton College at Oakland in 1869, after which he entered the first class of the Univer- sity of Cailfornia, from which institution he was grad- uated in 1873. Immediately he took up the study of law in his father's office at Stockton, and in 1874, at Sacramento, he was admitted to practice before the supreme court of California. Returning to Stock- ton, he engaged in practice with his father for a time, and also with Judge J. G. Swinnerton for a brief period. During 1873-1874 he had served as deputy district attorney under A. W. Roysden.

A nomination in 1882 for Congress at the hands of the Democratic Congressional convention seemed but to invite defeat, for the district was overwhelm- ingly Republican and his Republican opponent was Hon. Horace F. Page, who for years had represented this district in Congress with distinction and effi- ciency. Only the remarkable ability and personal magnetism of the Democratic candidate could have won in the face of such odds. His defeat was every- where predicted, but he persevered in his campaign and in every locality won stanch friends. It was he who originated what became known as the "buck- board canvass," so called from his habit of riding over the country in a buckboard. The end of the cam- paign brought him and his party victory, to the sur- prise of those who believed the Democrats could never win in this district.

In Congress Mr. Budd was very active and in- fluential, serving on the committees on education and invalid pensions, and also securing a large appropria- tion for dredging Stockton channel, and introducing and carrying through a measure in the interest of the settlers on the Moquelemos grant. To his ef- forts was due the passage of an amendment to the Indian appropriation bill, making the Indians amen- able to the state and territorial laws. Chinese mat- ters, interstate-commerce law, fortification measures, and appropriation bills were his chief interests while in the house of Congress. Upon his return to Stock- ton from Washington, at the expiration of his term, he was given an ovation surpassing anything of the kind ever witnessed in the city. He was renominated without a dissenting vote, but declined a second term. Again and again he was renominated, with appeals to

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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 95

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