Merced County
Biographies
JACK BANCHIO
Born in Brisbane, Australia, of Italian parentage, Jack Banchio is typical of the hardy mountaineers of northern Italy, as will readily be seen from an incident here related, which took place in his childhood days, and truly shows that "the boy is father to the man." His parents went from Piemonte, northern Italy, to Australia, settling in Brisbane, and there Jack was born and reared, and his schooling obtained in the public school. He had his own ideas on the subject of education, however, and when eight years old he decided to start out in life for himself, and ran away from home, starting afoot to the interior of Australia. The school and truant officers undertook to return him to his parents, and overtook him quite a distance from home; after capturing him they made him ride on a horse
with one of the officers, and while en route the officers, tired from their chase, stopped to get some refreshments, leaving young Jack on the horse; he turned a handspring off the animal, and was again soon lost in the brush. He this time headed across country, as the officers had threatened to whip him and put him in jail for being a bad boy, and he headed for Ipswich, where he arrived safely. The officers were soon in pursuit, but, being a strong, husky lad, used to the wilds, he succeeded in outwitting them and did not go home until he was about twelve years of age.
Not a long time following this occurrence, his parents left Brisbane for New Zealand, and after remaining there a short time they went to Sidney, Australia, and then decided to return to northern Italy via the Indian Ocean to the Isle of Ceylon, through the Red Sea and Suez Canal, then down the Mediterranian to Italy; so before their son Jack was much older he had become quite a traveled youngster and knew how to find his way about. On reaching young manhood he came to California, and finally landed in Merced County in 1910, where today he is one of the influential men of that district, one of the city trustees of Gustine, and proprietor of the Gustine Hotel, and Gustine Hotel Grounds. A man of originality and strong character, his influence is always for progress and the further advancement of his home section, and he has proven himself a real citizen of his adopted country. He has in his possession citizenship papers of England, Italy and the United States.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 617-618
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
MICHAEL DE GREGORI
The sketch of the life of Michael De Gregori shows his wide experience in America and in foreign lands. He was born in Naples, Italy, on September 29, 1841, the youngest of three children born to Antonio and Laura De Gregori. As a lad he followed the sea and during his travels landed in New York; from there he came to California via Cape Horn and found employment on a ranch after his arrival. He later went to Stockton and raised vegetables in San Joaquin County, which he sold in the city. He was married in Stockton on May 19, 1877, to Miss Adeline Alegretti, born in the province of Genoa, Chiavari, Italy. Her father was a sculptor and an artist and died when his daughter was only seven years old.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. De Gregori lived in Stockton, where their first two children were born. Then they moved to the Stevinson Colony in Merced County, leased ten acres of land and raised vegetables. In 1887 they moved to the West Side and bought 320 acres of land about four miles southeast of what is now the town of Gustine and improved the land and made it their home for several years. This ranch is still owned by Mrs. De Gregori and is devoted to all kinds of farm produce. Their next move was to buy eighty acres one mile from the New Era Creamery and run a dairy. They leased this property and moved into Gustine, where they bought a home, and here Mr. De Gregori passed away on November 20, 1915. Mrs. De Gregori resides in this home.
This worthy couple had eleven children: Sylvia, Mrs. Rimola, died leaving one son, Paul; Joseph, of Los Banos has five children, Walter, Ernest, Oliver, David and Annie; Artelia, deceased; Frank, of Gustine has a son, Michael; Louis, of Los Banos has two children, Blanche and Elmer; Antonio, of Newman; Mary, widow of J. O. Souza has two sons, Clinton and Vernon; Annie, Mrs. D. J. Canale, of Santa Cruz has one daughter, Virginia; Laura and Louise, twins, the former deceased; and George.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 618-619
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
JAMES T. RAGSDALE
The owner of the Ragsdale subdivision and addition to Meced, James T. Ragsdale, has a national reputation as a dealer in horses, mules and blooded stock. It was a business that came naturally to him from his father. He was born on a farm in Missouri on October 25, 1869, the fourth of nine children born to Thomas and Betty (Smith) Ragsdale, both natives of Missouri. The elder Ragsdale was a farmer, who owned vast tracts of land in Missouri before the first railroad bridged the Mississippi; he was also a well-known buyer of mules and horses, taking large droves of them to St. Louis. He devoted his life to that work and was a most successful business man; he died at the age of sixty-nine, and his wife at the age of sixty-eight.
James T. Ragsdale was brought up on the farm and attended the Washington district school. At the age of eighteen he began an interest in his father's business, taking charge of 160 acres, five miles south of Shelbina, and was there located until 1902, in the meantime engaging more and more in the breeding of shorthorn cattle, buying and selling mules and horses and handling as high as 2000 head of horses and mules in a season, shipping them to Texas and into the South. As a buyer he represented Brown and Price and Clay Robinson, of Chicago. During those days he never failed to show at the county and state fairs of Missouri for thirty years. At the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, he and his father took many premiums; he was the only one of his brothers who followed in the footsteps of their father in the stock business.
In 1893 James T. Ragsdale was married in Missouri to Miss Nannie Whaley, a native of Missouri, and they have a son, Marcus, who is married and has three children. Mr. Ragsdale and his family came to Merced County in 1902. The county was a great wheat belt and be began farming on a ranch two and one half miles out of Merced on the Oakdale road. Six months later he invested in Merced town property, and buying out the Merced Livery Stables changed the name to Yosemite Stables. From time to time he added other stables until he had three of the largest livery stables in Merced County with a string of seventy-five horses. During this time Mr. Ragsdale brought to Merced the first five-gaited horses. He owned the celebrated Monroe McDonald, a $1000 three-year-old; in 1914 he was the gold medal grand champion winner at the Sacramento State Fair. He also owned the champion stallion, Orfeld Prince who was bought, in 1910, by Miller & Lux.
In 1914 Mr. Ragsdale sold out his entire livery stable business owing to the coming of the motor vehicles and has since devoted a great deal of attention to the buying and selling of mules and horses throughout the valley. He represented T. H. Gilroy, of Kansas City, as agent of the U. S. Government in purchasing and shipping animals in 1917-1918, handling 150 a week throughout the valley from Sacramento to Bakersfield. He also shipped to Guyton and Harrington Mule Company at Kansas City, Mo. He was made the initial horse and mule inspector for California. Soon after the call came from the U. S. Government for horses and mules for war purposes, in association with Godfrey Priest of Long Island, he transported mules to French soil, and conducted the first inspection of war stock for the French government held in California, which took place in Merced when 250 horses were inspected. Since the war he has dealt with Rominger & Co., of Fort Worth, Texas, supplying work stock for southern cotton planters. He has shipped to Lambert and Langley in Salt River Valley and Phoenix, Ariz., also to Honolulu and other foreign ports. In 1920 he quit the stock business and entered the real estate field and bought the Bradley Tract embracing fifty-two acres, on Bear Creek at the eastern boundary of Merced, and placed the Ragsdale Addition on the market and found a ready response, for its value is unequaled in the State.
He has been a member of the Modern Woodmen of America thirty years; the Court of Honor twenty years; an Odd Fellow and a Rebekah in Merced for seventeen years. Mr. Ragsdale served as city trustee, 1918 to 1921, resigning the latter year when he removed from the city into the Ragsdale Addition of Merced. He has made two trips East since 1902, and has returned each time with a higher appreciation of California.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 619-620
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler