Calaveras
County
Biographies
JOHN RAGGIO
Among the native Californians who
are prominent in business circles at San Andreas, Calaveras County, there are
few who are more deservedly popular than John Raggio, who is interested in
“staging” in Calaveras and Amador counties.
Mr. Raggio was born at El Dorado, Calaveras County, July 16, 1859, a son
of Vincenzo Raggio, who was a native of Italy and was married there. Vincenzo Raggio came to California in 1853
and located in Amador County, where he was for a time a miner. Later he became a merchant at El Dorado,
Calaveras County, and lived there until his retirement from active
business. He and his wife are now living
at Angel’s Camp, he aged seventy-four and she in her sixty-eighth year. Their thirteen children are all living.
John, the fourth in order of birth,
was educated in the public schools at El Dorado, and at the age of twenty-one
began his career as a stage-line proprietor in partnership with his brothers,
Joseph and Ernest. Their first line was
from San Andreas to Sheep Ranch. Later
they opened a line to Milton and added other lines from time to time and now
own nearly all the stage lines in Calaveras and Amador counties and conduct a
large and remunerative business, which is under John Raggio’s
personal management. In addition to
their stage interests, they conduct a successful enterprise in supplying logs
to the mines at Angel’s Camp. They have
twenty-five coaches and eighty head of horse, which they employ on their stage
routes, and keep sixty-five horses at the logging barn. Mr. Raggio is a stockholder in a number of
valuable mining properties and from time to time his public spirit has led him
to connect himself directly or indirectly with different enterprises and
movements promising to advance local business interests. He is a stockholder, a director and the
president of the Calaveras County Bank, located at Angel’s Camp. He is a Republican in politics, but not an
active politician or an office-seeker.
He was made a Master Mason in Calaveras Lodge, No. 78, F. & A. M. in
1895 and has since taken the degrees of capitular Masonry.
Mr. Raggio was married January 15,
1897, to Miss Mary L. Gibbons, a native of San Francisco, a lady of education
and refinement, a skillful musician and a charming singer, who was a great
accession to society in San Andreas.
They have a little son, John Raggio, Jr.
Their home is a pleasant and well appointed one and its well ordered
hospitality has made it widely known. Mr.
and Mrs. Raggio are extremely popular and have a wide acquaintance throughout
central California.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 528-529. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Calaveras County Biographies