San Joaquin County
Biographies
GUY ADAMS.
A hard-working rancher, whose intelligent foresight, industry and thrift have been crowned with success, is Guy Adams of Lodi. He was born about six miles from Riverside, Cal., on July 14, 1888, a son of C. F. and Laura (Jones) Adams. C. F. Adams was a blacksmith by trade and dealt in irrigation pumps; he was also an expert well-borer. He left Monroe, Iowa, and came to California about 1885. There are three children in the family: Guy; Ralph, residing at Acampo; and Florence.
Guy Adams obtained his education in the district schools near Riverside and Corona, and after finishing the grammar school attended the Corona high school. At the age of eighteen he started out for himself, going to Seattle, Wash., and while there took a business course. He then found employment with the electric railway of Seattle, which occupied him for one and one-half years. Returning to California and to Acampo in 1912, he spent eighteen months in the fruit sheds, after which he leased and worked a number of ranches in the Acampo district.
Mr. Adams' marriage in Acampo, on July 29, 1914, united him with Miss Elizabeth McKindley. a daughter of Josiah and Emma A. (Mattice) McKindley. Mr. McKindley is an old and honored pioneer, who came to California in 1853 with his parents. When twenty years of age, he hauled provisions and lumber, besides doing a general freighting business from Volcano and other points to the mines in the early days. Later he became an extensive farmer, at times cultivating as many as 4,000 acres at once. In 1901 he purchased 196 acres southeast of Acampo, a grain-farm in a very run-down condition, which he immediately began to improve, building a fine house and barn and setting the land out to vineyard and orchards. From time to time he sold off portions as he developed them, until he reduced it to about 116 acres, the finest portion of the ranch. Of this ranch, forty acres are in peaches, four in apricots, six in cherries, twelve in prunes, and thirty in a vineyard, the remainder being in beautiful grounds or vacant land. The property was sold to a syndicate in 1923, and Mr. McKindley erected a modern home on Cherokee Lane, near the Houston School, in 1922-1923.
In 1915, Guy Adams located on his father-in-law's ranch and managed it until it was sold. In 1919, he purchased eighty acres east of Acampo, and is developing a fine orchard property. Ten acres have been cleared and planted to cherries; the balance is devoted to alfalfa and to the, raising of hogs. This ranch is run by Mr. Adams' father and brother. Politically, Mr. Adams supports the candidate best fitted to serve the community, regardless of party affiliations; fraternally, he is a Mason, a member of Woodbridge Lodge, No. 131, and a past master of the order; and a member and Past Grand of the Jefferson Lodge of Odd Fellows, at Woodbridge. He and his wife are members of the Order of the Eastern Star, of which Mrs. Adams is past worthy matron; and she is also identified with the Rebekah Lodge.
History of San Joaquin County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1923
p 1119
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.
JOHN E. GAYOU.
A worthy pioneer citizen of San Joaquin County now living retired in Stockton, where he is recognized as an honored and highly respected upbuilder, is John E. Gayou, who was born on June 19, 1860, in the adobe house at the corner of American and Washington streets which was erected by his father about 1850. He is one of a family of five children born to John and Mary (Euhart) Gayou, both natives of France and both now deceased. John E. and a sister, Mrs. Martin, are the two surviving children of this pioneer couple. John Gayou, the father, came around the Horn to California in 1850 and located in Stockton, where he engaged in driving pack mules, laden with supplies, to the southern mines. Soon after his arrival in Stockton, he purchased from Captain Weber the lot at the corner of American and Washington streets, 100 feet square, where the family home was established and where his son John E. resides.
John E. Gayou obtained his education in the Center, Lafayette, and Jefferson schools, and at the age of fourteen started to work on a threshing machine. He still improved his spare moments in reading and studying, however, so that he is accounted a well-educated man; he speaks French and Spanish fluently. He learned the trade of lather and plasterer, and followed the trade of lather in Stockton, San Francisco, and other parts of the state until 1893, when he was appointed a member of the police force of Stockton. He relates many thrilling experiences he has had during his twenty-eight years of service on the police force.
The marriage of Mr. Gayou united him with Miss Catherine Murphy, a native of Stockton, Cal., and five children were born to them, two of whom are now living: William A. and Emma, the wife of B. F. Spry, born at Oakdale, where his father was an old settler and a farmer. B. F. Spry conducted a grocery store at Pittsburg, Cal., for four years, but is now a resident of Stockton. Mrs. Gayou is now deceased. Mr. Gayou belongs to the Stockton Parlor, No. 7, N. S. G. W. He has erected three houses on the home place bought by his father more than seventy years ago, which he rents to good advantage.
History of San Joaquin County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1923
p 1120
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.