San
Joaquin County
Biographies
EDWIN DARWIN BAINBRIDGE
Almost a half century has passed
since Edwin Darwin Bainbridge became a resident of California, his arrival in
the state dating from December 12, 1874.
He was born in Grant County, Wisconsin, February 24, 1859, a son of
James A. and Mary Ellen (Herold) Bainbridge, natives of Kentucky and Missouri,
respectively. The father, Dr. James A.
Bainbridge, was born in Kentucky, December 22, 1832, and at the age of
twenty-five years, in 1857, was married to Miss Mary Ellen Herold, born in
Missouri in 1838. In 1860 the family
removed to Missouri, where Dr. Bainbridge followed his profession at Paulingsville. This worthy couple were the parents of ten children, seven
of whom are now living. One of the sons,
Dr. C. E. Bainbridge, a prominent physician and surgeon in Sacramento, died in
1910. The Bainbridge’s lived on a farm
in Randolph County, Missouri, until 1874, when they removed to California and
settled near Stockton at what is now Manteca.
The mother passed away at the family home near Ripon in 1885 at the age
of forty-seven years. Dr. Bainbridge in
1875 acquired large land holdings near Ripon, owning 1280 acres of rich grain
land; and he practiced his profession and farmed until his death in April,
1914. He was a Democrat and fraternally
was a Master Mason.
Edwin Darwin Bainbridge is the
eldest of the large family and received his education in the public schools of
Missouri and after coming to California was associated with his father in
ranching. In 1882 he began to farm
independently and rented the William Campbell ranch near Ripon for two years,
then in 1884 purchased 618 acres, known as the Putt Visher ranch, and paying
$50 per acre and leased the adjoining 938 acres, which he farmed to grain. His agricultural activities were not without
losses and discouragements. In 1890 Mr.
Bainbridge went to Madera County, where he farmed four sections of land to
grain for the next three years and at the same time farmed 2000 acres near
Ripon and met with good success. Giving
up his lease in Madera County in 1893, he continued on the Visher ranch, then
rented the Gardenheier ranch of 1100 acres, near Valley Home, from the pioneer
D. A. Guernsey, and farmed there for thirteen years. In 1899 he gave up his holdings near Ripon,
but in October, 1912, Mr. Bainbridge returned to the Ripon district, where he
owned 120 acres, which he had purchased in 1904 for $25 per acre. He now resides there. By 1908 Mr. Bainbridge had twelve acres under
irrigation which was seeded to alfalfa; later he sold off two forty-acre
ranches and retains forty acres of the original home place, which he is
planting to orchard and vineyard.
The marriage of Mr. Bainbridge
united him with Miss Addie A. Aldrich, a native daughter of Massachusetts, a
daughter of A. D. Aldrich, now deceased.
The Aldrich family came to California in 1877 and settled near
Farmington. Mr. and Mrs. Bainbridge are
the parents of four children: James A., is married and has one son and resides in Stockton; Edith
Doris, Mrs. Warren Hagman, resides in Ripon, the
mother of a son; Helen E., deceased; and Allyn D. is a rancher at home. Mr. Bainbridge was a director in the South
San Joaquin irrigation district for two years; for three years served as a trustee
of the Ripon school; was a director in the California Alfalfa Growers, Inc.,
which office he resigned in 1921; is a charter member of the California Milk
Producers Association of Central California and also of the Almond Growers
Association. He is a Democrat in politics
and fraternally is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America at Ripon. As a public-spirited citizen, a friend of
education and promoter of general progress he has long enjoyed the thorough
confidence of his fellow citizens.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1099. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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