San Diego County
Biographies
JOHN FRANKLIN MARTIN
A councilman of Oceanside for four
years before his election to the office of mayor, John Franklin Martin brought
to his duties in this connection a broad grasp of municipal needs and problems
as well as a keen sense of responsibility, and has fully justified the trusts
reposed in him. Also well known as an
enterprising businessman, he has here conducted a meat market for many years
and enjoys a large patronage. He was
born in Missouri, March 3, 1866, a son of F. L. and Virginia (Carver) Martin,
who went from that state to Colorado during the gold rush of 1872. The father had joined the Confederate forces
while in Missouri. Mrs. F. L. Martin
departed this life in 1888 and was long survived by her husband, whose death
occurred in 1920. They had five sons, of
whom three are living: John Franklin; C.
L., the proprietor of a hotel in Oceanside; and H. B. Martin, a retired
businessman of San Diego.
John F. Martin was a lad of six when
he went with the family to Colorado and has spent his life in the western
country. As a young man of thirty he came to California and in 1896 located at
Los Angeles, where he was identified with the meat trade for four years. With his removal to Oceanside in 1900 he
opened the Martin Meat Shop on the site now occupied by the fine building which
he erected in 1924. He buys his stock in
San Diego County, operating all departments of a meat market, and in years of continuous
activity is one of the oldest dealers in his line in this district. He sells to both the wholesale and retail
trades and the steady growth of the business is attributable to his experience,
reliability and careful management. His
store is located at 314 Second Street and he resides at 1103 Alberta Avenue,
Oceanside. He has under lease a portion
of the well-known Kelly Ranch, where he runs cattle, and at times takes a
vacation on the seventeen hundred acres leased.
In 1892 Mr. Martin was married to
Miss Effie Smith, a native of Iowa, and five children were born to them: Rena F., who is a graduate of the Oceanside
high school and Pomona College at Claremont, California, and lives with her
parents; Elwyn L., who is secretary to the San Diego manager of the Standard
Oil Company, with which he has remained for ten years, and has a wife and two
children; Walter E.; John Franklin, Jr., a student at the southern branch of
the University of California at Los
Angeles; and Robert B., aged thirteen years, a pupil in the Oceanside high
school.
In Masonry Mr. Martin is a charter
member of Oceanside Lodge, No. 381, F. & A. M., of which he was master for
three terms, serving in 1910, 1911 and 1915, and has been honored with a life
membership in the Past Masters Association of Southern California. A charter member of Oceanside Lodge, No.
1561, B. P. O. E., he has been one of its trustees for five years, and is loyal
to the teachings and purposes of these fraternal organizations. In the constructive work of the Oceanside
Chamber of Commerce he has long been active and at one time was its
president. He represented his ward in
the common council of Oceanside from 1918 to 1922 and in April, 1930, was
re-elected a councilman for a term of four years. In 1931 he was the unanimous choice for mayor
and his efficient, businesslike administration of the affairs of the city has
elicited unqualified commendation.
Impelled by a strong sense of duty and honor, Mr. Martin has ever placed
the general welfare before personal aggrandizement and is highly esteemed by
reason of his integrity and public spirit.
Mrs. Martin is a charter member of Poinsettia Chapter, No. 287, Order of
the Eastern Star, and of Oceanside Chapter of the Daughters of the American
Revolution and is serving as president of the Woman’s Club of Oceanside. Miss Rena F. Martin is one of the Daughters
of the Confederacy and also belongs to the local chapter of the Eastern Star.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. III, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 493-495, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles,
Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
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