Alameda County
Biographies
JUSTUS
GADING
JUSTUS GADING, a
California pioneer of 1851, and for many years a farmer of Eden township,
Alameda county, was born in Bremen, Germany, January 1, 1835, and died
May 9, 1897. Mr. Gading was a substantial
German-American, taking his cares and successes in calm, philosophical manner,
and at his death leaving a competence to his widow and children. When his
father’s farm knew him no more the sea claimed him for several years, for he
shipped before the mast when fifteen, and when nineteen landed at the port of
San Francisco. This was in 1851, and he had attained to a broad knowledge of
maritime affairs. For a time he was captain of a schooner in San Francisco bay,
then worked in the mines along the American and Feather rivers. He made quite a
fortune at one time, but lost it nearly all through the failure of people with
whom he engaged in business.
From the mines Mr. Gading went to Eden township, where he went to work on a
ranch by the month, and with the proceeds of his labor purchased a farm in
partnership with another gentleman. He next bought the ranch now occupied by
his widow and children, two hundred acres in extent, and for which he was
obliged to go in debt. In addition to cultivating his farm he ran a threshing
machine for several years, and succeeded so well with both enterprises that he
was able to purchase two other farms in a few years, one of one hundred and
sixty-eight acres, and the other of three hundred acres. His years were
comparatively peaceful until cancer of the stomach afflicted him, and he
suffered greatly before death came to his relief. He was a home-loving, quiet
man. Though stanchly on the side of Republican politics, he never desired
official recognition.
November 18, 1862, Mr.
Gading married Catherine Förste,
who was born in Oldenburg, Germany, May 22, 1842, and who lived in
her native land until coming to America in 1862. Soon after Mrs. Gading came to the west, and after a few months in San
Francisco, moved to Eden township, where she met her future husband. Mrs. Gading has three children, of whom William owns the ranch
adjoining the homestead; Amelia is the wife of William Zudreele
and lives in New York City; and Justus lives with his mother, and is her able
assistant in managing the ranch. Since the death of Mr. Gading his wife has erected a beautiful rural home,
comfortably furnished, and modern in every respect. Mrs. Gading is interested in the affairs in the great world
about her, and likes to recall her trip with her husband back to the old
country, where both retained the friends of their youth. The Gading ranch is well improved and fertile, yielding a
comfortable income every year, the land being devoted to general farming and
stock-raising.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
04 May 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 557-558. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Marie
Hassard.
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