Sacramento County
Biographies
GIUSEPPE BALDOCCHI
GIUSEPPE BALDOCCHI.--A very successful rancher who must be proud of the results he has enjoyed in
his scientific and practical methods of cultivating asparagus, is Giuseppe Baldocchi, the owner of some seventy-five choice acres on Sherman
Island. He was born in the province
of Lucca, Italy,
on November 24, 1888, the son of Nicodimo and Louisa Baldocchi, and his father came out to California
in the early days, settling near Courtland on the Sacramento River. After a while, he returned to Italy,
and there his good wife passed away when twenty-eight years old, while he is
still living, aged seventy-one years.
Giuseppe was the older of their two children born of this union. The sister died in youth and the father
married again, and had one child, Pietro, who resides
in Lucca. Giuseppe was sent to the best ordinary
schools of the neighborhood and got a good start for his battle with the world.
In
1903, having heard of the many attractive features of American life, Mr. Baldocchi came to the United States, and for a short time
he was on the Sacramento River, and then he went back to the bay city, and
lived there eight years. And in that
city, on August 14, 1906, he was married to Miss Mary Novero,
who was born in Piedmonte, and knew the life to which
he had been accustomed in Italy. Her father, Joseph Novero,
who had taken for a wife, Harriet Togliatto, came to California
with his family when Mrs. Baldocchi was thirteen years old, and Mrs. Novero
died on Brannan Island,
about twenty-four years ago. He first
settled on the Sacramento River, and farmed on the
island until he died, October 13, 1922, at the age of fifty-six years, as a
result of an automobile accident. There
were four children in the family, Mary being the second in the order of
birth. Modesto
is the eldest, Sylva the third, and the youngest is John. Mrs. Baldocchi
attended school on both Brannan and Sherman
Islands.
Mr.
And Mrs. Baldocchi took up their residence on Sherman
Island, where they purchased
seventy-five acres of land, and there they have since farmed. They have improved the farm with numerous
buildings, and today it is one of the really attractive ranches there. They have been blessed with three
children. Louisa was born on October 6,
1907; Armando first saw the light on March 6, 1914; and Guido entered the
family on February 19, 1918. Mr. Baldocchi is a Republican; a member of the board of
trustees of Riverside district school on Sherman Island; and a past chancellor
of Jefferson Lodge, Knights of Pythias, of San
Francisco.
Transcribed
by Priscilla Delventhal.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History
of Sacramento County, California With Biographical
Sketches, Pages 1002-1003. Historic
Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 P. J. Delventhal.