San Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN L. ABSHIRE.
An enterprising member of the agricultural class may be found in John L. Abshire, who is the owner of a fine ten-acre apricot and almond orchard situated on the Thornton Road, San Joaquin County. He was born at Forestville, Cal., August 20, 1870, his parents being John and Anna (Toney) Abshire. John Abshire was a native of Virginia who crossed the plains to California in 1863, settling first at Woodland, and later moving to Sonoma County. He married Miss Anna Toney, a native of Illinois, in the East, and the young couple came across the plains by prairie schooner and ox-teams. Ten children were born to them: Maggie, Alice, Sarah, John L., Andrew, May, living; and Margaret, James, Jane and Bell, deceased. The father lived to be sixty-four years old, and the mother, sixty-two.
At the age of twelve years, John L. Abshire began to contribute to the needs of the family support, and what education he received was obtained in the grammar school of Woodland. He remained at home with his parents until their decease. Removing to Fresno County, he worked for wages for five subsequent years; then returned to Woodland, where he met and married his wife, who was Miss Emma Smith. She is the sixth child born to Dr. Andrew M. C. and Cordelia Laurana (Kellogg) Smith, natives of Ohio and New York, respectively. Her father was a graduate of Pendleton Medical College, located at Pendleton, Ohio, and came to California with ox-team in 1849; later he returned to his native state, and when he returned to California he came around Cape Horn. He married Miss Kellogg, a member of an old New York family. This branch of the Kellogg family was represented in America by four brothers, who came over from Scotland in Colonial days. Great-grandfather Kellogg was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, and Grandfather Kellogg fought in the War of 1812, while her father fought in the Mexican War of 1846-48, in the 2nd Ohio Infantry, Company E. Her mother was thirteen years old when her parents came to California, and she was the eleventh woman in Yreka, Cal. The marriage of her father and mother is the second one recorded in Siskiyou County. The father prospected for gold in the early days and practiced his profession. In those days the name Yreka was spelled with a "W" instead of a "Y." The town received the name from the yells of the Indians as they surrounded the milling camp, yelling "Wi-reeka." Dr. Smith was one of the organizers of St. John Lodge No. 37, F. & A. M.. in Yreka. and rose to a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. He retired from practice and spent his last years with Mr. and Mrs. Abshire at Lodi. He passed away at the age of seventy-eight, while the mother passed away at Lodi at the age of sixty-four from the effects of an accident. They had ten children: Rozella, deceased; Maretta, deceased; Nettie: Clarence; Ensign, deceased; Emma; Warren; William, deceased; Clayton, deceased; and Albert.
Emma Smith was born in Orofino, Siskiyou County, where she was reared and attended the public schools. She then moved to Woodland with her parents, and soon afterwards married Mr. Abshire. Shortly after their marriage, Mr. Abshire moved to San Joaquin County, six miles southeast of Clements, where he engaged in raising bronze turkeys, which occupied his attention for five years; then he removed to Lodi and rented a forty-acre fruit ranch two miles south of Lodi on the Cherokee Road, where he farmed for the following fifteen years; then he moved to his present place on Thornton Road, a short distance from Woodbridge, a part of the Wilhoit ranch. This place is improved with a good house and orchard, which is irrigated by a five-inch pump. Mr. and Mrs. Abshire are the parents of two capable and interesting daughters: Leone Laurana, a graduate of Stockton College of Commerce, is a bookkeeper in Stockton; and Rozella Lucile is also a graduate of Stockton College of Commerce, and is a notary public and stenographer in Lodi. In politics, both Mr. and Mrs. Abshire are Democrats, and they are also members of the Congregational Church at Lodi.
History of San Joaquin County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1923
p 1520
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.
FRED C. ALLEN.
A straightforward citizen who feels a keen interest in all that pertains to the rapid and permanent development of San Joaquin County is Fred C. Allen, the well-known rancher residing east of Lockeford. He was born at Gorham, Maine on January 25, 1868, a son of Hosea Roscoe and Eleanor C. (Thorns) Allen. The father, Hosea R. Allen, served in the 17th Regiment Volunteer Artillery of Maine, serving throughout the Civil War in the Army of the Potomac. After eighteen months of service he was disabled and was transferred and drove an ambulance; then he tried his hand at cooking, and finally was detailed for hospital service, where he worked until he became so weak he was a subject for the hospital himself. In 1883 he came to California, and the same year returned to Maine. In 1884 he brought his whole family to the Coast and settled four miles north of Lockeford in Elliott township, where he purchased 160 acres of grain land. There he passed away at the age of seventy years, while the mother lived to be eighty years of age.
Fred C. Allen attended school at North Bridgetown and later at the Fryberg Academy until he came to California. He was then sixteen years of age and started out for himself. He and his brother, W. S. Allen, who had come to California in 1880, leased about 800 acres and farmed to grain; then Mr. Allen moved to a portion of the old Megerle ranch, now the property of Charles F. Smith, and leased it for six years. Again the brothers entered into partnership and bought 200 acres of land adjoining Lockeford on the east; this was grain land and the brothers developed a fifty-acre vineyard, which they afterwards sold. A property settlement was then made and his brother received fifty acres, thus leaving our subject 100 acres, which is his home place at the present time. He also owns 160 acres south of Clements. Mr. Allen has a ten-acre vineyard and a number of acres in alfalfa. Some five years ago the old house was burned to the ground and he has substituted a fine story-and-a-half modern structure to take its place.
Mr. Allen's marriage in Lockeford, on December 22, 1894, united him with Miss Ora Viola Hatch, a daughter of Forest R. and Charlofine Hatch. Mrs. Allen was born in Glens Falls, N. Y., and came to California with her parents when a young girl, receiving her education in the schools of Lockeford. Her father, Forest R. Hatch, was a volunteer in the New York Infantry and served three years of the Civil War; later he engaged in farming. Mr. and Mrs. Allen are the parents of five children: Roscoe Forest; Clifton Le Roy; Fred D.; Flora Viola; and Alice Viola, deceased. In national politics, Mr. Allen is a Republican and fraternally he is a past grand of the I. O. O. F. Lodge of Lockeford.
History of San Joaquin County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1923
p 1520
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.