Contra Costa County
Biographies
ALBERT B. HOAG
A successful hardware merchant of Danville, Contra Costa county, Albert B. Hoag is one of the most prominent citizens of this community and an important factor in its progress and upbuilding. He was born in Lowell, Mass., April 17, 1845, a son of Jonathan and Mary Elizabeth (Parker) Hoag, who celebrated their golden wedding June 3, 1891. The elder man was born in New Hampshire, of Quaker parentage. In 1858 he brought his wife, and two sons, Charles P. and Albert B., to California via the Isthmus of Panama, and settled in Contra Costa county, where he bought a squatter's right to a ranch one and a half miles above Danville. The first year he devoted the land to wheat, after which he raised grain, cattle and hay and set out an orchard of various fruits. In 1877 he sold that property and went to Oakland, building there two houses, but later removed to Sonoma county, where he bought twenty acres of land and farmed until his death May 29, 1894, at the age of eighty-four years. His wife survives him and now makes her home at No. 1619 Walnut street, Berkeley, a member of the family of her son, Charles P. Besides her two sons, she had one daughter, who died at the age of two years.
Albert B. Hoag, in conjunction with his father, invented the Hoag Self-Regulating Windmill, and while his father lived in Oakland they manufactured and sold them. Afterward they disposed of their interests to the Eclipse Windmill Manufacturing Company, after which Mr. Hoag and his brother handled their goods for four years. On withdrawing from his position as salesman Mr. Hoag became store-keeper for the Southern Pacific Railroad and later division shop clerk, continuing in this employment four years. Deciding to return to the early training of his boyhood years he then purchased a ranch in Lake county, Cal., and conducted the same successfully for three years, after which he sold out and came to Danville, to take charge of the Albert Van Patten ranch and settle up the estate. In 1890 he opened up a hardware, plumbing and tinning business in this town and has made this his principal occupation up to the present time. In 1900 he took the United States census for this district.
The marriage of Mr. Hoag united him with Maggie Van Patten, a native of Michigan and the daughter of David Van Patten, who came to California when she was one year old, and spent the remainder of his days here. Born of this union were the following children: Charles B., a machinist of San Mateo; Jesse P., a carpenter of San Francisco; Eugene A., a plumber of Palo Alto; Robert B., a physician, who is giving his entire time and attention to the cause of foreign missions; and Mabel, who married Fred Hill of San Francisco, and has two children, namely: Mona and Fred Burnham. Mr. Hoag is a member of the Congregational Church, in which is officiates as elder.
Transcribed
11-29-16 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1405-406. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2016 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Contra Costa County Biographies