Merced County
Biographies
THOMAS D. CALKINS
The development of the Great Golden State is due to the energy and patience of the pioneers who left their comfortable homes in the East and came to the West and helped in the task to establish a State. One of these families was the Calkins', who trace their ancestry, by well preserved records, not only back to the Eastern States, but to the nobility in England. M. D. Calkins, father of our subject, was a native of Ohio and in 1852 came to Nevada City, Cal. He had married in the East, Elizabeth A. Sayles, also born in Ohio, who joined him in California in 1853, and their first child was born here. Later the family returned east and established the family home in Chicago, where Mr. Calkins became established as a journalist. He made numerous trips to California to look after his mining interests here, until in 1878, when he returned with his family. Both he and his wife died in San Francisco.
Thomas D. Calkins was born in Elyria, Ohio, on April 13, 1858, the second of seven sons, of whom three are still living. He attended the public schools in Illinois, also an academy in Chicago. In 1879 he came to California and established a newspaper in Forest City, called the Sierra County Tribune, which he moved to Downieville two years later, and conducted it for ten years. He then sold out and moved to Sutter Creek and was proprietor of the Amador County Record for another ten years. We next find him in San Francisco, where, with his two brothers, he established the Pacific Coast Miner, a mining and engineering journal, which was sold three years later to the Mining and Engineering Journal of New York. T. D. Calkins was one of the organizers of the Calkins Syndicate and in San Francisco he established the Orchard and Farm publication. After the fire and earthquake of 1906, when his material fortune was swept away, he sold his interest in the syndicate and spent four years as editor and owner of the Haywards Review, at Haywards; then he was four years in Monterey as owner of the Daily Cypress. In 1917 he came to Atwater and purchased the Atwater Signal, established in that town in 1911 by L. F. Atwater, since which time he has built up a good circulation and also does a good job printing business.
Thomas D. Calkins was united in marriage on October 1, 1884, with Mary M. Farley, daughter of Judge M. Farley of Alabama, who brought his family to California in 1869. He served in the State legislature from Monterey County in the sessions of 1882-1883. Mary Farley was born in Fairfield, Texas, and was a sister of Henry Farley, at one time sheriff of Monterey County and who was killed in 1899 by the bullet of a bandit. He was once postmaster at Gonzales and prominent in the Native Sons of the Golden West. Three children have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Calkins, viz.: Malcolm, connected with the Merced Sun; Donald Reid, proprietor and editor of the Ceres Courier; and Lucile, wife of R. T. Hughes, of Napa. Mr. Calkins has a record for having put in nearly forty-five years active work in the newspaper business. He has always been closely identified with the life of the State and has helped make its history.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 569-570
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
JOSE F. FREITAS
A prosperous rancher of Merced County, who has become independent through his own unaided effort, Jose F. Freitas is now an influential part of community life in his district of the county. Born April 11, 1862, at Faja Grande, Flores, the Azores, he is the son of Francisco J. and Violante (Freitas) Freitas, both of the Azores Islands. His father was a veterinary surgeon in Don Pedro's army from 1832 to 1833, and received three major wounds in campaigns in Spain and Portugal. He died a farmer, which occupation he took up in later life, in Flores, and there his wife died, also, after reaching the venerable age of seventy-seven years; she was a remarkable woman in many ways, and passed on these characteristics to her descendants.
Jose F. received his schooling in the public schools of his native land. He was reared on a farm, but was never satisfied with the outlook for advancement at home, and his correspondence carried on with two older brothers, A. J. and John, who had preceded him to California, in 1864 and in 1867, respectively, and had done well in the mines near Folsom, decided Jose F. to come to the new country himself and there find the opportunities lacking in the home land. At the age of nineteen he boarded the barque Sarah, crossed the Atlantic to Boston, taking twenty-eight days for the voyage and arriving June 17, 1882. He concluded his long journey by settling in Mariposa County, Cal., meeting his brothers there, and he immediately started to work as sheep herder in the mountains. In the following years he bought an interest in the business, in 1886, and followed sheep and wool growing until 1893, living at Indian Gulch and making his summer camp at Tuolumne. That year he sold out his interest, and reinvested in land in Merced County, moving to Buhach Colony in 1898, and there he engaged in sweet potato growing. He sold his ranch in 1915, having in the meantime, in 1913, invested in Ash Tract, where he now owns forty acres, a well developed ranch devoted to general farming.
The marriage of Mr. Freitas, which occurred in May, 1901, at Merced, united him with Mrs. Lucinda Z. (Souza) Bispo, then a widow with two sons. Four children have been born to them: Violet, Joseph, Mary, and Frank. Mr. Freitas is prominent among his countrymen as Past President of the U. P. E. C.; and he has for the past twenty-two years belonged to the Woodmen of the World of Merced. December 28, 1888, he received his U. S. citizenship papers, from Judge Corcoran, at Mariposa, and he is a Republican in politics, with a real interest in all civic and national affairs. A progressive minded man, he is a great reader and takes more than a passing interest in world events. His interest in local matters is shown by the fact that he was instrumental in organizing the Buhach District school, and served as school trustee for eight years. Mrs. Freitas is a member of the S. P. R. I. S. I., and both give liberally to charities and all good causes. In 1910 Mr. Freitas donated an acre of land to the Buhach Immaculate Conception Catholic Church Association. His success has come to him through years not unmixed with adversity, and he is ready and willing to help others in their struggle for a place in life.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 570-571
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler