Alameda County
Biographies
JOSEPH CLEMENT BATES, JR.
Joseph Clement Bates, Jr., for twenty-five years a resident of Alameda, is known as one of that community's representative and honored citizens. He has left the impress of his work and personality upon the political history of the state and upon the public thought and opinion of the city where he makes his home, and today as cashier of the United States mint occupies a position of distinction which he has won worthily and which he richly deserves. He is one of California's native sons, his birth having occurred in San Francisco, August 10, 1871. His father was J. C. Bates, who came to California in 1863 and who gained more than a local reputation as the author of a book entitled "Bench and Bar of California."
Mr. Bates of this review remained in his native city until 1889 and then moved to Alameda, where he has since resided. A few years later he became prominent and active in local public life, winning election to the state assembly in 1903 and again in 1905. In recognition of his able, beneficial and far-sighted work in the lower house he was in 1906 elected to the senate and served during the sessions of 1907 and 1909. His name figures conspicuously upon legislative records, and he has been a promoter of many projects which have found their way to the statute books of the state. He is a fearless champion of whatever course he believes to be right, and his loyal defense of his honest convictions formed one of the strongest elements in his success in political circles. Mr. Bates left the senate in 1909 to become cashier of the United States mint in San Francisco, a position which he now holds and the duties of which he discharges with ability and conscientiousness.
Mr. Bates married Miss Caroline Williams of Concord, California, and they have two children: Edith, aged nine; and Joseph, six. Fraternally Mr. Bates is well known in the Masonic order, holding membership in the lodge, chapter; Oakland Commandery and the Mystic Shrine. He is identified also with the Native Sons of the Golden West, the Elks and the Woodmen of the World. Few men have done more effective work in the public service, and the record of none has been more faultless in honor.
Past & Present of Alameda County, California – Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914
p. 309
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
WALTER R. RIDEOUT.
Walter R. Rideout, who enjoys recognition as one of the leading and enterprising business men of Oakland, has won merited success as president of the W. R. Rideout Company, engaged in general transportation. His birth occurred in Oak Valley, California, on the 11th of July, 1867, his parents being J. R. and Alvira Rideout.
In 1869 the family home was established in Marysville, Yuba county, and there our subject pursued his education until eleven years of age, when his parents removed to San Francisco, where he attended the public schools until a youth of sixteen. Subsequently he became a fireman in the employ of his father, who owned a river steamer, and later acted as engineer and then as pilot, being the only man holding an engineer's and pilot's license at the age of twenty-one. He served as pilot on the steamer Alvira until 1893 and afterward acted as pilot of the steamer Trilby for a year and a half or until his father sold it to the Sacramento Transportation Company. He next served as pilot on the Pride of the River for a year and afterward built the steamer Fort Bragg, which he ran for two years and then sold to the Sacramento Transportation Company. Subsequently he joined his brother, E. V. Rideout, for the conduct of a shipping and transportation business in San Francisco, and in 1910 Walter R. Rideout came to Oakland to establish the trans-bay shipping end of the business, organizing a separate company of which he became president. The company in Oakland is known as the W. R. Rideout Company and does a general transportation business, operating three steamers, two barges and one tug boat. Walter R. Rideout is the first man to make the transportation business a success in Oakland.
The following is an excerpt from a publication called Greater Oakland, published in 1911: "One of the most progressive and largest concerns of its kind in Alameda county is the W. R. Rideout Company, whose big warehouse and yards are located on the waterfront at the foot of Webster street. The business was established about five years ago, and under the able management of its hustling and progressive president, Walter R. Rideout, it has steadily grown to its present proportions. In 1910 Mr. Rideout established the trans-bay shipping end of the business, and the company is now in a position to handle the biggest contracts for the transportation of freight between San Francisco and Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley. The concern operates the following freight boats: the Alviso, one hundred and fifty tons, and the Juliette, four hundred tons. About a year ago, following out its policy of doing everything possible to increase the efficiency of its service, the company inaugurated the use of auto-trucks for deliveries, and up to date have purchased six of these big trucks, which means the investment of nearly thirty thousand dollars for autos alone. The company gives employment to some seventy-two men, and the annual pay roll amounts to fifty-one thousand, two hundred dollars, which adds materially to the general prosperity of Oakland. The concern transfer from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy-five tons of freight per day, doing more business than all the rest of the transfer companies combined. The warehouse, which is situated directly on the water front, with excellent shipping facilities, is three hundred and fifty feet long by seventy-five feet wide. In addition to the auto-truck service, the company operate about fifteen teams. The company practically controls the trans-bay freighting business, doing all the work of the Pacific Hardware Company, Dunham, Carrigan & Hayden, Lally & Company, Holbrook, Merrill & Stetson, Haas Brothers, N. O. Nelson, Whittier-Coburn & Company, Bass-Hueter Paint Company, N. R. Nason, Sherwin-Williams Company, Wellman-Peck Company, J. H. Newbauer, Sussman-Wormser Company, Tillmann & Bendel, L. T. Snow, M. Getz, Getz Brothers, Hooper & Jennings, A. P. Hotaling, Italian-Swiss Colony Wine Company and hundreds of others. Walter R. Rideout, the congenial head of this concern, is one of the best known and most popular business men in the city. He is a man of generous proportions and big ideas. While shrewd and energetic in business matters, all those who know him find in him a good fellow, generous to a fault and a stanch friend."
In politics Mr. Rideout is a republican, while in religious faith he is a Protestant. He is a valued member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Trade and also belongs to the Woodmen of the World. His fellow townsmen recognize his merit and ability and his business colleagues and contemporaries entertain the warmest admiration for his many good qualities.
Past & Present of Alameda County, California – Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914
p. 310
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler