Contra
Costa County
Biographies
HENRY G. BOLLMAN
Henry G. Bollman is a
successful ranchman of Contra Costa county located in
the Mount Diablo valley on a ranch of six hundred acres, which is now devoted
to the cultivation of hay and raising of stock. Previous to the last ten years
he raised grain principally, in which cultivation, by wise and judicious
management, he met with success and accumulated a competency which enabled him
to become the owner of his present prosperous ranch. Mr. Bollman
is strictly a self-made man, having been thrown upon his own resources at an
early age, and with nothing but his own energy and courage to buoy him up, has
steadily advanced to his present position of influence and affluence.
Born in Santa Clara county, Cal., August 3, 1855, Mr. Bollman
was a son of Dedrick and Henrietta (Ringstruff) Bollman. The elder
man brought his family to California in 1853 or ’54, locating at San Jose,
Santa Clara county, where he followed farming until
his death, in 1858, at the early age of forty-five years. His widow married a
second time, becoming the wife of Andrew Gehringer,
who afterward settled in Contra Costa county, where
her death occurred in May 1903, in her eighty-second year. Henry G. Bollman grew to manhood and sought to earn his living by
hiring out to neighboring farmers. By industry and economy he managed to
accumulate sufficient money to admit of the purchase of one hundred and fifteen
acres of his stepfather’s ranch, and began general farming and stock-raising.
With the passing years his accumulated wealth was invested in adjoining land
until to-day (sic) he owns six hundred acres. He has continued to add
improvements in the way of buildings, fences, etc., and has set out a small
fruit orchard, which is only intended to supply his family with needed fruits.
In addition to his farming interests he conducts a dairy of thirty-five cows,
having his own creamery upon the ranch.
The marriage of Mr. Bollman in 1887 united him with Mattie Smith, a daughter of
George Smith, who spent his last years in Contra Costa county.
Mrs. Bollman was born in Iowa, but was reared and
educated in California. Born of this union were six children, namely: Harold,
Henrietta, Ralph, Winnie, Catherine and Marion.
Transcribed by: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 982-987. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.
Contra Costa County Biographies