San
Joaquin County
Biographies
BERT BETHFORD BANTA
The descendant of a California
pioneer, Bert Bethford Banta, can well take pride in
the achievements of his progenitors, for it is to their unbounded faith in the
future of this part of the country and their many years of arduous labor, that
much of the present prosperity of this generation is due. Mr. Banta’s grandfather, Henry Banta, who was
the father of the late James Banta, came to California in early days and
settled in San Joaquin County where he acquired several hundred acres of land,
Banta being named for him.
Bert Bethford
Banta was born on March 25, 1889, in Merced, but grew up in San Joaquin County,
attending school in the Willow district school.
His mother, Mrs. Millie (Wacksmuth) Banta is a native of Pennsylvania,
who accompanied her parents to California in 1868, her father being Edward
Wacksmuth, a pioneer of the county, who was highly esteemed and honored by his
friends and business associates. Edward
Wacksmuth was born in Germany on January 31, 1834, and in 1857 came to the
United States, locating at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1861 he enlisted in the Union Army and
served until 1864 when he received his honorable discharge at Washington, D.
C. He saw service in the following
battles: Battle of Yorktown,
Williamsburg, Seven Days’ Fight on the retreat with
General McClellan, Battle of Malvern Hill, Battle of the Wilderness under
General Hooker, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania, and Gettysburg under General
Meade. He was wounded in the right wrist
and breast in the Battle of the Wilderness and was removed to the Base Hospital
in Virginia and was cared for until his recovery. Soon after his discharge he removed to
Franklin, Pennsylvania, where he was employed as an engineer for a short time;
then went into the grocery business at the same place. In 1868, ambitious for a field of greater opportunities,
he sold his business and embarked for California via Aspinwall, across the
Isthmus of Panama and to San Francisco.
Remaining in California but one year, he returned east for his family
and on their arrival located in Sacramento, but after six months removed to
Ellis, a town on the Central Pacific Railroad, where he engaged in the hotel
business; he afterward leased the hotel for two years and engaged in the sheep
business. However, in 1877 he resumed
the hotel business and the following year removed his hotel building into
Tracy, where he conducted a first-class house for many years. The Wacksmuth block on Central Avenue, stands
as a monument to this man, who pioneered and won success. Besides Mrs. Banta, there are three
children: Mrs. Elda Slack of Tracy, Mrs.
Mary Grunauer and Eddie Wacksmuth,
of San Francisco.
During 1909, Bert.
B. Banta was graduated from the California School of Mechanical Arts in San
Francisco, and then entered the University of California, taking up the
agricultural course, and in 1914 received his B. S. degree. Returning to Tracy he has ever since been
engaged in grain farming and stock raising, and is
justly proud of the blooded animals on his farms. His extensive land holdings are coming under
the irrigation systems and thereby will become not only more productive, but
more valuable. Mr. Banta erected a fine
residence on a 320-acre tract of land adjoining Tracy where he makes his home;
125 acres are devoted to a fine field of alfalfa, and many acres of corn are also
seen on his vast holdings, which are in the West Side Irrigation District.
Mr. Banta’s marriage, which occurred
in Berkeley, California, in December, 1918, united him with Miss Amelia
Armstrong, a daughter of Mrs. D. F. Armstrong, a resident of Berkeley. Mrs. Banta is an active worker in the affairs
of the Woman’s Improvement Club of Tracy and Eastern Star circles. Mr. Banta is a well known figure in the
Masonic Blue Lodge, Royal Arch, and Eastern Star, and is a strong member of the
Farm Bureau of San Joaquin County. Both
Mr. and Mrs. Banta being great lovers of the outdoors, have spent many happy
days in the high Sierras, hunting and fishing, and have visited every National
Park in the west, and some of them many times.
Mr. Banta is a man of affairs and is ever ready to lend his aid to
projects that are for the good of his home town and community.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
883. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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