San Joaquin County
Biographies
EVERETT H. WOLF.
A progressive native son, whose advancement has been steady, is Everett H. Wolf, the capable president and general manager of the Stockton Paint Company, located at No. 547 East Main Street. He was born in Stockton, Cal., on August 24, 1888, a son of William and Hermina (Rothenbush) Wolf, both natives of California, and numbered with the pioneers of San Joaquin County. His father was in the grocery business in early days with the Hedges Buck Company; later he was superintendent of streets at Stockton; after retiring he lived in this city until he passed away, being survived by his widow. The only child was Everett H., who attended school at the Weber, Fremont and El Dorado grammar schools and was graduated from the Stockton high school with the class of 1906. As a boy he worked in the Stockton Paint Company store and after finishing his education entered their employ as a regular. He learned the business thoroughly and worked his way up until he became president and general manager, a position he has filled since 1912. The Stockton Paint Company was established some twenty-five years ago, carrying a general line of paints and doing contract painting. In 1904 they started the manufacture of "Old Mission" paint, which has become very popular throughout the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, Southern Oregon and Nevada, the territory covered by their traveling men. The present members of the corporation have owned the business since 1912. Besides the manufacture and selling of their own products, they carry on a retail business and jobbing lines of Eastern goods.
The marriage of Mr. Wolf, at San Francisco, united him with Miss Evelyn Watts, a native of Modesto, Stanislaus County, Cal., and they are the parents of two children, Marjorie Jane and Mary Evelyn. In fraternal circles Mr. Wolf is a member of Stockton Lodge No. 218, Elks; of the Anteros Club, the Rotary Club of Stockton, the Chamber of Commerce, and Merchants' Association.
History of San Joaquin County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1923
p 957
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.
JOHN OWEN McKEANY.
Concentrating his activities upon his business affairs, John Owen McKeany has carried forward to successful completion whatever he has undertaken, and today his influence for good is felt in his locality. He was born at Morristown, N. J. on November 5, 1871, a son of Ed. McKeany, a native of Ireland who came to America in 1862. In 1882, the family migrated to California, settling in Livermore, Alameda County, where the father founded and conducted the McKeany nurseries and engaged in landscape gardening, which he followed for many years. Disposing of his nursery business, Mr. McKeany removed to Oakland, Cal., living in retirement fifteen years prior to his death in 1917.
Coming to California when only nine years old, the greater part of John Owen McKeany's education was obtained in the Livermore school; then for a year and a half he was occupied in learning the blacksmith's trade; later he learned the butcher's trade and for ten years followed that occupation, his retail shop being operated along successful and progressive lines. During the year of 1895, removing to Tracy, he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and was soon promoted to the position of engine foreman of the yards.
The marriage of Mr. McKeany occurred in Stockton, Cal., on February 16, 1896, and united him with Miss Mary Passler Knollenburg, a daughter of Mrs. Mary P. Knollenburg, and a stepdaughter of the late Peter Knollenburg, a sturdy pioneer of San Joaquin County. Mrs. Knollenburg is now eighty-two years old and resides with her daughter in Tracy. Mr. and Mrs. McKeany are the parents of three children: Lysle married Miss Mary Golden of Mississippi and they have two children, Jacqueline and Lysle, Jr. He enlisted in the United States Navy on June 20, 1917, serving as clerk in the department of pharmacy, his service covering a period of twenty-two months. Suffering a severe breakdown he is being cared for in the U. S. Hospital at San Diego, where he is gradually regaining his health. Francis, the second son, married Miss Gladys Quinlin, and they reside in Tracy; Roy attends the University of California where he is a student in the law department; he was the first president of the high school student body at the West Side Union high school, from which institution he was graduated with the class of 1921; he was popular in all affairs of the school, especially in athletics, and is a member of the Del Rey fraternity house. For the past twenty-two years, Mr. McKeany has been a member of the Woodmen of the World, and of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen; the family reside at their home at No. 224 West Tenth Street, Tracy.
History of San Joaquin County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1923
p 958
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.
CHARLES KIMBALL BAILEY.
The pride and strength of any country, its mainstay and support, is the farmer, whose toil produces food for the masses, and without whose labors poverty and ruin would soon come to the nation. The hardy frontiersman of America had much greater tasks before him than the mere tilling of the soil; he had forests to raze, rivers to bridge, roads to make, privations and hardships innumerable to endure, yet rarely did he falter in the grand and noble work, the work which meant civilization, progress and prosperity. In the mighty work of rendering the great state of California a fitting place for mankind Charles Kimball Bailey certainly performed his share of the task, and no one was more deserving of praise than he. He passed to his reward in November, 1905, honored and beloved by all who knew him, for his life had been useful and productive of great good to his locality.
Mr. Bailey was born in Andover, Mass., June 9, 1830, a son of Samuel and Prudence (Farmer) Bailey. The father, a Massachusetts farmer, lived to be seventy-five, the mother sixty-three years old. Grandmother Bailey was over eighty years old when she died, and her brother, Jesse Trull, was eighty-five years old. Grandfather Bailey also died at an advanced age. The Bailey, Farmer and Trull families are believed to be long settled in New England. Charles K. went to school more or less until the age of twenty years, but after he reached the age of fourteen he drove a market wagon in spare hours, and when there was no school. His father was a farmer and market gardener, and the son had early opportunity to learn the business. In 1851 he went to work in a grocery store in Lowell, and in June, 1853, he came to California via the Nicaragua route. After one month in San Francisco he went to mining at Mokelumne Hill, and followed this business in that section for nearly ten years.
On January 8, 1863, at Mokelumne Hill, Mr. Bailey was married to Miss Mary E. Belknap, born near St. Louis, Mo., March 4, 1846, a daughter of James D. and Rachel (Rhoads) Belknap. James D. Belknap brought his family across the plains with ox teams and covered wagons to California in 1850, the journey occupying seven months and eight days. Arriving in San Jose, they remained there a short time, then removed to Mokelumne Hill. The mother, a native of Pennsylvania, died four years ago, aged ninety-three years, and Grandmother Barbara Rhoads lived to be 104 years old. In 1863, Mr. Bailey bought 160 acres of land in partnership with C. W. Carpenter. Mr. Carpenter was a native of Vermont, born in 1830, and came West to California in 1852, where he was associated with Mr. Bailey in mining enterprises and later in stockraising, the partnership being maintained until the death of Mr. Carpenter in 1883, aged fifty-seven. Mr. Bailey became an extensive landowner, owning at the time of his death in 1905, 5,360 acres, besides a large number of fine horses and 6,000 sheep. He was survived by his wife and five children and a sister, Mrs. Perrin, residing in Lowell, Mass., aged eighty-seven years.
The five children of Mr. and Mrs. Bailey are as follows: Nettie Orilla, the widow of James A. Louttit; Addie Mabel, Mrs. E. D. Middlekauff; Hattie Maud, wife of Dr. E. A. Arthur; Edward Franklin, and Mamie Ethel. Mr. Bailey was a member, in high standing, of the Mokelumne Hill Lodge, I. 0. 0. F.
In 1917 Mrs. Bailey with five others left Stockton in an automobile for Detroit, Mich. , making the journey in fifteen days, a marked contrast to the journey she made seventy-three years before. Mrs. Bailey has retained a portion of the home ranch for herself as long as she lives and the balance has been equally divided among her children. She is still an active member of the Methodist Church at Linden and is alert and interested in all matters pertaining to her locality. Mr. Bailey achieved success through honorable effort, untiring industry and capable management, and his true nobility of character and deference for the opinions of others gained for him many warm personal friends. Mrs. Bailey is well preserved and does not show the years of pioneering she went through. She reads, sews and works without the aid of glasses and is in good health. A cultured, refined woman of pleasing personality and charm, she still resides on the old Bailey homestead where she went as a young bride over sixty years ago and is held in the highest esteem throughout the county where so many useful years have been spent.
History of San Joaquin County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1923
p 958
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.