San
Joaquin County
Biographies
MRS. CLARA A. BARTON
An admirable example of California
womanhood, and a worthy representative of a San Joaquin County pioneer family
long influential in the communities in which they lived, is Mrs. Clara A.
Barton, who has long been successfully interested in viticulture in San Joaquin
County and is now the owner of a fine twenty-acre vineyard two miles southeast
of Acampo, devoted to Tokay and Zinfandel grapes. Born in San Joaquin County, not a great distance
from her present home, she is a daughter of William D. and Mary A. (Fuqua)
Smithson. Her father, William D.
Smithson, was born in Kentucky, and later was a pioneer in Illinois. While still a young man, he came to
California and spent the first seven years of his residence in the mines of
Placerville and Diamond Springs; and in 1860 he settled in San Joaquin
County. On February 25, 1862, on the old
J. K. Moore place northeast of Acampo, he was married to Miss Mary A. Fuqua,
born in Ralls County, Missouri. Mr. and
Mrs. Smithson were the parents of seven children, as follows: William Alfred, who died in infancy; Nathan
Hayden, a rancher near Smithson Station; Clara A., of this sketch; Minnie J.,
now Mrs. Curtis, of Stockton; Lucy Lee, who passed away in 1895; John Clay,
with the Holt Manufacturing Company at Stockton; and Melvin B., on the home
place. Mr. Smithson passed away at the
age of sixty-six and the mother died in April, 1920, at the age of seventy-four.
As a girl, Clara A. Smithson
attended the Telegraph district school, and made her home with her parents
until her marriage to Samuel Barton, in Stockton, on October 27, 1891. Mr. Barton was born in the County of Perth,
Ontario, Canada, on September 6, 1860, of Scotch-Irish parents, and received
his education in St. Katherine’s College in his native country. Previous to his removal to California in
1884, he taught school in Canada.
Settling in San Joaquin County, he rented a ranch near Acampo and farmed
to grain for a number of years. Later he
purchased forty acres on the Cherokee Road, two miles southeast of Acampo, and
immediately set about to improve it.
Twenty acres were set to vineyard and a number of acres were devoted to
alfalfa; and a comfortable ranch house and other farm buildings were
erected. Mr. Barton passed away on March
3, 1904. They were the parents of two
children, of whom one died in infancy.
The other, Ila Ruth, was married to David F. Graffigna and had one daughter, Lucile Ruth. Mrs. Graffigna
passed away on January 6, 1919, and her daughter, Lucile Ruth, makes her home
with her grandmother, Mrs. Barton. Mrs.
Barton takes an active interest in all that concerns the welfare of the
community. A firm believer in the future
greatness of San Joaquin County, she has herself done her full share toward its
development. She has lived a useful and
self-sacrificing life, and her influence has ever been on the side of good.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1111-1112. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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