LESLIE D. CHADWICK

Sacramento County

Biographies

LESLIE D. CHADWICK

LESLIE D. CHADWICK.--Prominent among the mercantile leaders of Sacramento County who are steadfastly contributing toward the development of the great Golden State may well be numbered Leslie De Forest Chadwick, the popular merchant of Wilton. A native son, he was born at Brentwood, in Contra Costa County, on May 1, 1885, the son of Joshua Weston and Emma (Howard) Chadwick, the former a native of Sheldon, Vt., who came out to California in 1878. He was a farmer, and died at the age of sixty-five, breathing his last at Brentwood in 1918. Mrs. Chadwick was a native of San Ramon Valley, California, and is still living at the age of fifty-nine. Grandfather Howard, a native of Virginia, came out to California in 1849, and crossed the great plains to get here. He first mined for a short time, and then farmed at several places in California. His last twenty years he spent at Marsh Creek, where he died at the age of eighty-six. Mr. And Mrs. Chadwick had five children: Leslie De Forest, the subject of our review, was the eldest; Effie is Mrs. Raymond Bonnickson, of Brentwood; Lee H. Is with his brother in the store at Wilton; Edith is Mrs. Lloyd Geddes, of Antioch; and Robert is in Sacramento.

Leslie Chadwick attended the grammar school of the Liberty district at Marsh Creek until he was fifteen years old, and then worked for his father for four years on the ranch; and from nineteen to twenty-one he attended the Liberty union high school at Brentwood. In 1906, he became a locomotive fireman on the Western division of the Southern Pacific, and for six years he made his home at Oakland. He then fired for two years for the Southern Pacific Railroad on the run out of Napa.

In 1914, he came to Wilton and bought out the grocery business that had been started about six months before by Mr. Batten, an old veteran of the Civil War; at that time a very important establishment, which, however, by good management. Mr. Chadwick has developed into a very profitable enterprise. Such indeed has been the increase of trade under his new management that he has found it necessary to erect an addition to his store building; and he now has all the trade he and his brother can handle. He deals in general merchandise, and he serves the community by wisely anticipating their wants, and also by buying and selling only the best, at the most reasonable prices possible. When Wilton was granted a post-office, he was appointed postmaster; and he has filled that responsible office ever since. He is also the agent for the American Railway Express at Wilton. He also owns some property in the town of San Leandro, Alameda County.

Mr. Chadwick was married at Sacramento on February 21, 1918, to Miss Florence Barkley, a daughter of James and Mary Barkley, who first saw the light at Fairplay, Eldorado County. Her father was a stockman, had a large cattle-range, and owned about 1,200 acres of range and farm land in Eldorado County. He is still living at the fine old age of sixty-eight, and resides at Placerville, where he is cheered by the companionship of his devoted wife. Mrs. Chadwick attended the Fairplay grammar school, and then went to the Stockton Normal, and she taught school for eight years in Sacramento County, previous to her marriage. She was one of a family of seven children. Pearl is Mrs. Joseph Schwarts, of Stockton; Maude is the widow of Wm. Snyder, and lives at Lodi; Mabel is the widow of Wm. Cooper, and lives near Pearl; Mamie is Mrs. Charles Young, of Stockton; Florence, the fifth born, is the wife of our subject; James also lives at Stockton; and Ann is Mrs. Cleo Mortimer of Placerville. The Chadwicks have one son: Donald Irvin. Mr. Chadwick is a Republican, and a member of the Knights of Pythias, of Napa.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Page 904. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.