San Bernardino County
Biographies
JOHN SUVERKRUP
John Suverkrup
had been actively and successfully identified with the lumber business in San Bernardino for a third of a century when he passed
away in March, 1922, and his interests are still carried forward under the name
of the John Suverkrup Lumber Company, which conducts branches in Riverside and other cities in southern California.
He was born in Schleswig-Holstein, near Kiel, Germany,
April 26, 1851, his parents being Frederick and Dorothy (Bowk) Suverkrup,
lifelong residents of the same locality.
John Suverkrup
attended the public schools at the place of his nativity and after putting
aside his textbooks was apprenticed to a flour miller, learning the milling
trade, at which he worked until he had attained the age of twenty years. In 1871 he crossed the Atlantic to the United States, landing in New York, where he worked in a sugar
refinery for two years. The he
determined to come west and in 1873 arrived in San Francisco, where he was employed in a
grist mill for six months. Next he made
his way to Sacramento,
where he purchased a partnership in a grocery store but sold out at the end of
eighteen months. Then he came to San Bernardino and here
he remained. Mr. Suverkrup first rented
a ranch, started a dairy thereon and conducted the same successfully for nine
years. In 1884 he purchased a ranch but
later disposed of the property. In 1887
he acquired an interest with John Hook in two sections of timber land and the
following year embarked in the retail lumber business in San Bernardino in association with Mr. Hook,
whose interest he bought about 1910.
Thereafter he continued in the lumber business alone to the time of his
death, developing a trade of extensive and profitable proportions and becoming
widely recognized as a capable and reliable business man. His honorable methods and his genial
personality made him many friends throughout the district in which he operated;
square dealing was the keynote of his life, and he fully merited his prosperity
and high standing.
In 1894 Mr.
Suverkrup was united in marriage to Miss Emma Williamson, a daughter of William
Williamson, of San Francisco. They became the parents of three sons, as
follows: Herbert, who married Estelle Rucker, and has a son and a daughter, John
Herbert and Barbara Estelle; John Edward, who married Stella Mason and has one
child, Meredith; and Fred.
Mr. Suverkrup
gave his political support to the Republican Party and always manifested a keen
interest in civic movements of worth, contributing much to the progress of his
home city. He held membership in the San
Bernardino Chamber of Commerce and was among the pioneers to whom so much is
owed for their early work in the development of the city and state. He belonged to the Fraternal Aid Society and
was highly esteemed throughout the community in which he so long resided. Coming to the new world in young manhood, he
here found the opportunities which he sought and through their wise utilization
won both prosperity and an honored name.
His death, which occurred March 9, 1922, when he was nearly seventy-one
years of age, was the occasion of deep and widespread regret. Mrs. Suverkrup, who survives her husband,
erected a beautiful home at 423
Eighteenth Street in 1931 and is a recognized
leader in San Bernardino’s
social circles.
Transcribed by Bill Simpkins.
Source: California of the South
Vol. II, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 243-244, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Bill Simpkins.
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