San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WILLIAM C. ALLEN
It would be impossible to estimate
the wealth that has been added to San Joaquin County through the development of
irrigation, and so to those men who have been instrumental in the working out
and installation of economical irrigation systems much credit is due. Among them may be numbered William C. Allen,
of Lodi, who for many years has been engaged in this line of work. Descended from California pioneers,
associated with Stockton from its earliest days, Mr. Allen is a native son of
that city, his parents being Charles C. H. and Harriet (Morton) Allen, the
former a native of Boston, Massachusetts, while Mrs. Allen was born in
California; her mother, Mrs. Catherine Morton, having come to Stockton with
Captain Weber’s party, thus being among the first white women there. The father, who came to Stockton when it was
but a village, was for many years before his death associated with the Holden
Drug Company.
Three children were born to this honored
couple: Mrs. Katie Kemp of Lodi,
Cornelius Allen of Oakland, and William C. Allen of this sketch. After finishing his education in the public
schools of Stockton he learned the plumber’s trade with E. A. Whale in
Stockton, later conducting a fruit store on Market Street there. He then went to San Francisco where he worked
at his trade with Mangrum & Otter, going from
there to Lodi, where for nine years he was associated with the plumbing
department of Henderson Brothers. Much
of his work has been the installation of pumps and engines for irrigation, his
experience covering a wide field in this line, so that he is an expert in
irrigation matters.
About four years ago Mr. Allen
became agent for the Krogh deep well pump and the Crocker-Wheeler motor, and
since then he has installed more than 400 of these pumps in the Lodi
district. A first-class pump which has
given complete satisfaction, the Krogh deep well turbine pump is designed to be
placed in bored or drilled wells without the use of pits. The pump is located down in the well at such
a depth that the impellers are submerged when the pump is idle, so that it is
self priming, and one type has a tube surrounding and enclosing the shaft and
bearings, protecting them from contact with heavy gravel and coarse material
carried in the water. Mr. Allen has made
pump installations on the ranches of C. F. Woodruff, Earl Fruit Company, Claude
Van Gilder, Louis Sanguinetti, Ed Hutchins, J. S. Stuckenbruck,
Charles Buck, and the Western Fruit Company ranch at Galt, all of whom can give
testimony to the expert quality of Mr. Allen’s workmanship.
Mr. Allen’s marriage, which occurred
at San Francisco, June 2, 1909, united him with Miss Eleanor Huber, the
daughter of August and Frances (Harriet) Huber.
Her father was a businessman in San Francisco and her parents died
there. Mrs. Allen was educated at St.
Vincent’s Convent in San Francisco. Mr.
and Mrs. Allen are the parents of two sons, Albert and Noel Allen.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1566-1567. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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