San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WALTER W. BEIDLEMAN
An energetic, hard-working and
successful young engineer, who as assistant superintendent of construction of
pumps and pipelines of the Shell Company of California is demonstrating his
aptitude and capableness, is Walter W. Beidleman, a native of Oregon, born near
La Grande, on March 4, 1886. His
parents, Edward Thomas and Helen (Porter) Beidleman, were sturdy pioneers of
the west; the father, a native of Illinois, emigrating
to Oregon as early as 1850, accompanied by two brothers who, at that time,
conducted a freighting business in Union County, Wyoming. Some years later, Edward Thomas Beidleman,
the father, was appointed United States superintendent of the Indian
Reservation in Oregon. In 1892 the
parents removed to southern California, where they now reside near Lemon Grove,
San Diego County.
Removing to San Diego, Walter W.
entered the San Diego high school and in 1900 he went to work for Braun &
Company, of Los Angeles, to learn the machinist trade, spending four and
one-half years in completing the apprenticeship; then he became assistant
engineer of construction with the San Diego electric railway power house and
was so occupied until 1906, when, on March 10, he enlisted as a second-class
machinist in the U. S. Navy, serving until January 12, 1909 when he received
his honorable discharge with the rate of chief machinist, U. S. S. Preble. He immediately enlisted in the Merchant
Marine Service on board the Texan, a large freighter, as third engineer; soon
after was transferred to the Governor with rating of second engineer; and was
then promoted to first engineer and on the next trip to sea, was transferred to
the Nebraska, bound for the Hawaiian Islands.
After this trip he went aboard the Spokane as first engineer. His last sea service was on board the
Ventura, which plied between Seattle and Sidney, Australia, and in 1912 he left
the service to take up machinist work on the construction of the oil pipeline
from Taft, Kern County, to San Pedro, in the employ of the General Construction
Company, becoming station foreman and in charge of construction machinery, being
thus occupied until 1914. During the
next six months he took an interesting trip to Alaska.
Since early in 1915, with the
exception of the time from May 8, 1918 to the time of his discharge, May 16,
1919, Mr. Beidleman has been connected with the Shell Company of California;
and in January, 1921 he was appointed to the position of assistant
superintendent of construction of the pumps and pipeline under Fred B. Simms,
whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work; he is a member of the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers.
The marriage of Mr. Beidleman
occurred in Juneau, Alaska, on April 10, 1912, and united him with Miss Nina
May Bethel, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. G. Bethel, both deceased, who was
living with a sister in that city; in 1914 Mrs. Beidleman again made a visit to
her sister there. Mr. Beidleman has been
the participant of two trips around the world, one on the S. S. Texan and one
on the U. S. S. Meade, the latter during the time of the World War in 1918; he
also held the post of engineer with the rank of lieutenant, junior grade, on
board U. S. S. Liberator in army transportation of the A. E. F., which earned
for him his U. S. unlimited marine engineer license, of which he is justly
proud. Fraternally Mr. Beidleman is an
active member of the Masonic order.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1347. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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