San
Joaquin County
Biographies
EDWARD ALDERS
It took Edward Alders eighteen years
to reach his present prominent and influential position as a fruit grower in
the Farmington district of San Joaquin County. He has had a somewhat varied career, but
since 1904, when he took up horticulture, he has never faltered and success has
crowned his efforts. He is the owner of
a fine, highly cultivated and productive forty-seven-acre ranch near
Farmington, twenty-seven acres of which is in vineyard and fourteen acres in an
orchard of plums and peaches. He was
born in Stockton, California, April 24, 1877, the eldest son of Charles Milton
and Annie (Gately) Alders. Charles Milton Alders was born near
Lancaster, New York, and at the age of twelve years came to California all
alone, via Panama. Charles Milton Alders
was reared in Stockton and there was married to Miss Annie Gately. He was engaged in the butcher business until
he opened the Halfway House on the French Camp Road a few miles from Stockton,
which he conducted until 1884, when the family removed to Farmington. Mr. and Mrs. Alders reared seven children,
all of whom are living. Charles Milton
Alders was a man of true worth. For
twelve years he was the proprietor of the Central Hotel in Farmington. At his death in 1908 the property was left to
his wife, who continued to operate the hotel until 1911, when the business was
turned over to her son Edward, the subject of this sketch, who successfully
handled the business until 1919.
Edward Alders received a good
education at the Farmington school, which he later supplemented with a business
course at the Santa Cruz Business College.
From an early age he began a career extending over thirteen years as
market hunter, shooting ducks and geese, which he shipped to the San Francisco
market. Most of his hunting for the
first nine years was done on the Miller & Lux ranch east of Ingomar, which is now the Gustine Gun Club. The next four years he hunted on the
Stevenson ranch near Hills Ferry on the Merced River. Alders Levee, which is now a part of the
Gustine Gun Club’s premises, was named after our subject because of the fact
that he had maintained his camp there for many years. With the savings from his hunting he was able
in 1904 to buy his present land in the White district near Farmington, located
on the Bellota Road, and was one of the first ranchers to plant a vineyard in
this section. More recently he has
improved this ranch with a concrete-piped irrigation system, getting his water
from a deep well equipped with a six-inch pump.
His property has steadily advanced in value and productiveness, and the
quality of his Tragedy plums has won for him prizes at the county fair.
On March 31, 1909, at Stockton, Mr.
Alders was married to Miss Berde M. Dodge, a native
of Stockton, a daughter of Charles M. and Ada (Heward) Dodge.
Grandfather Heward was a native of England who
came to America in 1852. Charles M.
Dodge, a native of Vermont, came to California in early eighties, and for
twelve years conducted Dodge’s Bazaar in Stockton. Mrs. Alders graduated from the Stockton high
school in 1907, then attended the Western Normal School, and afterwards
followed the profession of teaching in the public schools of Sierra County
until her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Alders
are the parents of three children:
Charles Averel, Arlen Edward, and Ada Anna.
Fraternally Mr. Alders is identified
with the Knights of Pythias at Newman and the N. S. G. W. at Stockton. Mrs. Alders maintains an active interest in
educational matters and is serving as trustee of her home school district.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1183-1184. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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