Sacramento County
Biographies
WILLIAM DE
BACK
WILLIAM DE BACK.--An experienced, progressive and very energetic executive who has done much to make popular the institution he represents, is William de Back, the superintendent of the Bayside Cannery at Isleton. He was born at Vorden, Cal., on February 7, 1890, the son of William and Marie (van Ede) de Back, Hollanders who came out to California about 1885, and settled at Vorden. The father, a carpenter and building contractor, lived to be sixty-seven years old, survived by his devoted wife, who is still residing at Vorden. William is next to the youngest in a family of six children, the others being Paul G. de Back, of Isleton; Gilbert, in Vorden, and Harry, Joseph, William and John, the youngest, in Sacramento.
William de Back attended the Walnut Grove district schools, and at the age of seventeen went forth into the world to make his own way. He was first employed by the California Fruit Canners’ Association, of Vorden, and learned every department of the canning industry, continuing with that plant for six years. He then took up electrical contracting, made his headquarters at Isleton, and had, besides, a place of business at Oakley. He did wiring and installed electrical pumps, but at the end of two years he went off to the Hawaiian Islands, and became the assistant superintendent of a cannery for the Pearl City Fruit Company there. He remained for three seasons, or for two years and eight months, in the Islands, and on his return to California was in the stage-line business operating the Isleton-Sacramento auto stage from 1915 to 1918. In the latter year he sold his interest to take a position with the Bayside Cannery at Isleton, beginning with the winter of 1919. And there, for four seasons, he has been superintendent of their plant, which packs asparagus, spinach, string-beans, pumpkins, carrots and vegetable salad. Mr. de Back votes for the candidates and for the measures he deems best, regardless of party dictates.
The marriage of Mr. de Back and Miss Ethel Crump, a native of Clarksburg, Cal., took place on March 8, 1913, at Isleton, the bride being a daughter of J. C. Crump and his devoted wife, who was Miss Alice Feran before her marriage. Mr. Crump is a farmer, and he is steadily to be seen at work at Isleton. Ethel attended school at Clarksburg and Isleton, and in that locality she was reared. She attended Sacramento high school and then prepared for teaching in a private school at San Francisco, and she taught school at Isleton. They have one child, a daughter, Alice Helen. Mr. de Back is a member of Isleton Lodge No. 108, I. O. O. F., and is a past grand of the order. He is also a member of Sacramento Lodge No. 6, B. P. O. E., and was made a Mason in Rio Vista Lodge, F. & A. M., and was a charter member of Isleton Chamber of Commerce.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches,
Pages
954-955. Historic Record Company, Los
Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.