San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN N. BALLANTYNE
A pioneer establishment of San
Joaquin County that has made a steady and satisfactory growth during the past
thirty-eight years is the Frank H. Buck Company of Lodi; and the man most responsible
for the increased growth of its business during the past three years is John N.
Ballantyne, the industrious manager of the San Joaquin County plants. He was born in Brooklyn, Iowa, and when eight
years of age was taken by his parents to Des Moines. He was educated in the public schools, and at
the Capital City Commercial College of that city, where he was duly graduated
in 1902. His first position was with the
Remington Typewriter Company, and later he was employed by the Charles Hewett
Company, wholesale grocery men of Des Moines.
In 1905 he came to California, whither his father and a brother-in-law
had migrated a few months previous, and located at Acampo, on a fruit ranch
which his father had purchased. After
three years with them, he sold his interest and purchased thirty acres of the
Nelson orchard, located near Youngstown, and on this place he makes his
home. He has improved the place with all
modern equipment, including a pumping plant, fruit sheds, etc. Of the thirty acres, thirteen are in grapes
of the Tokay and Zinfandel varieties, and fifteen in orchard. A six-acre apricot orchard produced in 1920 a
gross income of $4500. Mr. Ballantyne
owns another thirty-acre tract, in the same vicinity, twenty acres in vineyard
and ten acres in orchard. The net profit
from the 1920 crop on this place more than covered the original cost of the
ranch, and the 1921 crop did almost as well.
With a partner, P. J. McLaughlin, he owns a twenty-five acre ranch near
Youngstown, twenty acres in vineyard and the balance in orchard.
In his management of the Frank H.
Buck Company, Mr. Ballantyne has oversight of the plants at Lodi, Youngstown,
and Victor. The company packs and ships
peaches, pears, apricots, and table and wine grapes, and many varieties of
plums and during the season handles the output of about 1,500 acres. This company was among the first to enter the
fruit packing and shipping industry that has made California famous and has
been such an important factor in the development and prosperity of the
state.
The marriage of Mr. Ballantyne
united him with Miss Anna Larson, a native of Iowa. His energies are expended toward the building
up of his business, and at the same time he never loses sight of the
development and prosperity of the city and county with which he has become so
actively associated.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1108. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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