Merced County
Biographies
ANGELO IACOPI
Perhaps one of the most popular Italian-Americans on the West Side in Merced County is Angelo Iacopi of Los Banos. The record of his progress since landing in America when a lad of thirteen is one of thrift and perseverance. He was born at Montuolo, Lucca, Italy, on December 11, 1870, the son of Louis and Justina Iacopi, both natives of the same section of Italy as our subject. This worthy couple had five children: Almina, living with her mother in Italy; Angelo, our subject; Felice, represented on another page in this history; May, also in Italy; and Pasquale, who died when he was twenty-seven years old, while on a visit back to his home. Louis Iacopi died on May 5, 1905 at the age of seventy-eight; the mother is still living and at the age of ninety-eight is hale and hearty and does not look over fifty.
Angelo went to the Italian schools until he was thirteen, then he came to America and upon arriving in San Francisco he sold fruit out of a basket on the streets of that city. He next went to work on the San Pedro ranch in San Mateo County, saved his wages and soon was able to rent some ground and raise vegetables for himself. In 1889 he went to Firebaugh in Fresno County and worked for Miller and Lux, but in 1890 he was recalled to Italy and had to serve his allotted time in the Italian Army, being an artilleryman. As soon as he was free from military service he hurried back to California and began raising beans and potatoes on Staten Island, in the Sacramento River. This was very discouraging, for beans sold for sixty-five cents per hundred pounds and potatoes for ten cents a sack, simply enough to pay for the sack. He quit business and returned to Firebaugh and went to work for Miller and Lux again for twenty dollars per month. He was frugal and saved his money and soon had enough to take him back to Italy in 1897, where he married the girl of his choice who was waiting for him to make his pile in America and go back and get her. Returning to California he went to work for the Kern County Land Company at Bakersfield in opening an artesian well. From there he went to Tulare, then back to Firebaugh and finally got to Los Banos in 1900. Here, he in partnership with his brother, Felice, began the manufacture of soda water and syrups of various kinds and met with success, Angelo buying out his brother and continuing the business. Before this Mr. Iacopi was in the liquor business, having a retail and a wholesale establishment. He made money, invested it in property in Los Banos and built houses and today owns some of the most valuable business corners in the town. He also had a nice home built in Italy for his parents, in which his mother is still living and where his father died.
A short time before National prohibition was declared by President Wilson, Mr. Iacopi became a candidate for the city council and before he entered the office he disposed of his large stock of liquors at a heavy loss because he did not want to hold office while he was selling liquor. He also has been a heavy loser by indorsing notes for his friends. Notwithstanding all his losses he is optimistic and enjoys life to its full. He has always been large-hearted and generous, liberal with his money and has made and retains his friends.
Mr. Iacopi was married in Italy in 1897 to Miss Clara Puccinelli, a native of Lucca, and they have five children: Nello, who is in the employ of the Standard Oil Company, in Los Banos; Amebilia, who married A. Michelotti and has one daughter, Peggy; Jennie, married P. Carlotti, lives in Dos Palos and is the mother of a son, Bruno; Mary married F. Cosella of Dos Palos; and Laura, who is attending school in Los Banos. Mr. Iacopi received his citizenship in Merced in 1902 and is a Republican. Fraternally he belongs to the Eagles, the Druids, the Foresters and the I. D. E. S., all in Los Banos. He conducts an oil station on the highway at the edge of Los Banos. He has a bowling alley and soft drink parlor in his own building on I Street. He is an ex-councilman, serving from 1915 to 1919, during which time many of the improvements were made in the city, streets paved, sewers installed, and the water works enlarged and improved.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 738-739
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
ELMER K. ANGLE
A leading general contractor and builder of the San Joaquin Valley is Elmer K. Angle of Dos Palos, the builder of many of the reinforced concrete bridges of Merced County in the last eight years. He was born in Louisiana, Missouri, on September 25, 1882, and here he attended the public schools. As a lad he worked at the carpenter trade with his father and at an early age began taking contracts for general building. In 1905 he came to California and located at Dos Palos and since that time has been engaged in his chosen line of work. Among the bridges and buildings he has built are the Santa Rita Slough bridge, built in 1915; the Los Banos Creek bridge over Los Banos Creek, in 1916; the bridge across the Livingston Canal above Atwater; bridges across the double canals on Pacheco Pass lateral; and he has done bridge work all over the San Joaquin Valley. Buildings which stand to his credit are the Medlin block, the Odd Fellows Hall block, the Du Bois block, the George Nickel home and tank house on the Delta Ranch. He built the Dos Palos Public Library, which he sold to Merced County. He also built the North Star and the Reynolds Avenue school buildings in the country; the Dos Palos Grammar School; the new gymnasium of the Dos Palos Union High School and the Dos Palos Junior High in 1924; and he remodeled the two churches in Dos Palos. He owns a twenty and one-half-acre alfalfa ranch on the main canal.
He married Ella May Krigbaum, a native of Missouri, and has three children, Shelton, Mary and Doris. In fraternal relations he is a member of the Modern Woodmen and of Mountain Brow Lodge No. 132, F. & A. M.; Merced Chapter No. 12, R. A. M.; and Fresno Commandery No. 29, K. T.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 739-740
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
W. B. PUGH
The rapidity with which new towns and subdivisions have been developed in California during the past ten or fifteen years is little short of miraculous, and great credit is due the men who have been on the ground from the beginning, literally working like beavers in the activity attendant upon the opening of new lands, and making them ready for the influx of new settlers. When Planada, in Merced County, was first opened by the Los Angeles Investment Company, in 1912, they were looking about for a man to take charge of all field operations in the opening and laying out of the district, and their choice settled upon W. B. Pugh, and he was the man who was on the ground when the "first gun was fired." In fact he "fired" it, superintending all street grading and other development work in the new colony, and he has remained steadily in charge and is still the caretaker for all their interests there today, in the interval seeing all the changes that the short length of time has made, and these have been many, for it is today one of the most prosperous districts in the San Joaquin Valley.
A native of Hancock County, W. Va., Mr. Pugh was born April 10, 1862, the second of nine children in the family of Andrew C. and Matilda (Pugh) Pugh, of that State. The mother has passed on, her death occurring at Chester, W. Va., in January, 1924, but Andrew C. Pugh is still living, and maintains an active interest in affairs at the good age of ninety years. Educated in the public schools of his native county, W. B. Pugh was reared as a farmer's son, and left home when nineteen years old to take a job as apprentice to the blacksmith trade, at Hookstown, Pa. He learned the trade most thoroughly and at the end of eighteen months became his employer's successor to the shop; he later sold out, to enter sales work for the International Harvester Company, and was on the road for many years.
In 1908 Mr. Pugh came West and established a shop, working at his trade once more, first at Santa Monica, Cal., and later moved to Hollywood, until the time when he came to Planada for the Los Angeles Investment Company. He has since made his home there; and he is now owner of one of Planada's fine homes, and also of desirable real estate in the town, which he has seen grow from "the ground up," and his every effort has been to help the progress, thereby adding one more prosperous community to the State, where nothing but bare land had been before.
The marriage of Mr. Pugh, in Hancock County, W. Va., in 1885, united him with Ida Boody, a native of East Liverpool, Ohio, and one son has been born to them, Andrew, an ex-service man of the World War, an expert machinist and tractor man, and now an employe of the Yosemite Valley Railroad Company. Mr. Pugh belongs to the Planada-Tuttle Farm Bureau, and is a real "booster" for Merced County, for he has seen what can be accomplished, and has a very real foundation for his faith in this section of our wonderful State.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 740-741
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler