San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES A. BACON
Besides having the honor of being a
native son of San Joaquin County, Charles A. Bacon is also the only son of a
pioneer family who came to this state in 1863, and was born on the Bacon ranch,
three miles from Lockeford on July 25, 1868.
His father was Eugene Charles Bacon, a native of New York, and a son of
Samuel C. and Finetta Bacon, natives of Connecticut and New York State
respectively. Samuel C. died in 1861 and
Finetta Bacon died in 1852. In 1854
Eugene Charles Bacon left home and traveled through many western and southern
states, following engineering on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers for a
period of nine years. He arrived in San
Francisco in 1863, but after four months went to Virginia City, Nevada, where
he was employed by the Gould & Curry Company for three years, then removed
to San Joaquin County, California, and settled on the ranch that became known
as the Bacon Ranch and followed ranching and stockraising until his death in
1913, aged seventy-seven.
In 1867, Mr. Bacon was married to
Miss Ellen Vincent, daughter of Capt. Ashmit B.
Vincent, who came to California as master of a sailing vessel, around Cape Horn
in 1850. Upon his arrival here he spent
two years in the mines, then went to Mokelumne Hill and was engaged in
gardening until 1855 when he removed to San Joaquin County where he bought a
squatter’s claim to 160 acres of land from Merchant and Moore. This he cleared and farmed until his death in
November, 1870. He had made arrangements
to have Mrs. Vincent join him in California with their two daughters, Ellen and
Cora, who came in 1853 on a clipper ship around the Horn. Mrs. Vincent died on January 23, 1861. Mrs. Eugene Charles Bacon is still living on
the home place near Lockeford and at eighty years of age is hale and hearty and
is surrounded by a host of friends who enjoy her tales of pioneer conditions in
the Golden state. Mr. and Mrs. Bacon had
two children, Charles A. and Ethel, who with their mother reside on the home
place.
Charles A. Bacon received his
education at the Harmony Grove school and after his school days were over worked on the ranch and at the same time has
followed the machinist’s trade, as well as learning the plumbing and sheet
metal trades. From 1900 until 1912 he
conducted a shop in Lockeford, during which time he perfected an acetylene gas
machine which he manufactured and sold.
After moving his shop to the ranch he has devoted part of his time to
managing the home estate and doing expert repair work on all kinds of
machinery, his equipment being adequate to handle almost any kind of a
job. For more than fifteen years he has
engaged in well boring, specializing in deep water wells for irrigation
purposes. On the ranch they maintain a
dairy of twenty cows and raise grain and stock; twenty acres of the ranch is in
alfalfa. Mr. Bacon is a member of the
past grand of Progressive Lodge No. 134, I. O. O. F., at Lockeford, a member of
the Lodi Encampment, and past chancellor of the Lockeford Knights of
Pythias. Politically he is a Republican
and is counted among the progressive men of the Lockeford section of his native
county.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
644. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases