San
Joaquin County
Biographies
HENRY D. BINGER
More than a third of a century has
passed since Henry D. Binger became a resident of California, his arrival in
the state dating from 1888. He was born
at Rodenburg, Hanover, Germany, on December 6, 1852,
a son of Christopher and Elizabeth (Hauschild)
Binger, who were also natives of Hanover.
The father followed his trade of blacksmith in his native country, but
in 1862 he came to America. He arrived
at Castle Garden, New York, with his wife and four children, the eldest son
Charles having preceded them to Ohio.
Christopher Binger, after purchasing the railroad tickets for the family
to their destination, Napoleon, Ohio, had only five dollars left. However, as soon as he arrived in Napoleon he
went to work, as did also each member of the family, so they soon had secured a
foothold in the new country. He died at
eighty-six years of age and the mother passed away when past eighty years. They were the parents of six children, five
of whom grew up: Mrs. Anna Hogrefe, of Napoleon; Charles, living in Humboldt, Kansas;
Mrs. Mary Rohrs, deceased; Mrs. Katie Rohrs, of Napoleon, and Henry D., the youngest, and the
subject of this review.
The education of Henry D. Binger
extended from the time he was six years old until he was nine, when he came to
Napoleon, Ohio, with his parents in 1862.
On the voyage across the ocean he had a comrade, John Bockelman, several years older, who on arrival in New York
City, while on the steamer, before they landed, enlisted for service in the
Civil War. Unfortunately, Mr. Bockelman died from pneumonia brought on by exposure while
in the service.
On his arrival at Napoleon, Ohio,
Henry D. Binger immediately began the battle of life, working on his father’s
ranch and also on other ranches, giving his wages to his father to help support
the family, until he was twenty-one years of age. In 1875 he made the trip to Stillwater, Minnesota,
where he was employed at rafting logs down the Mississippi River for a season,
then was employed two years in a stone quarry.
In 1878 he returned to Napoleon, Ohio, and there bought a forty-acre
place and farmed it until 1886, when he sold it and leased a farm for a couple
of years. Coming then to California, he
settled on thirty acres two miles east of Lodi on the Lockeford Road. Twenty-four acres he planted to Zinfandel
grapes, the first wine grapes planted to the east of Lodi. In 1898, Mr. Binger installed an irrigating
system consisting of a No. 5 Sampson pump driven by a twelve horsepower
engine. He was the first man to irrigate
his land east of Lodi. That year was
unusually dry and it cost Mr. Binger $400 to irrigate his vineyard, but it was
the means of saving it. Three years
later, he set out almond trees on his remaining six acres. Mr. Binger was the architect and builder of
his two-story house, constructed from concrete blocks.
Mr. Binger was married in Ohio on
April 28, 1878, to Miss Dora Boling, a native of Hanover, Germany, and daughter
of Christopher Boling, who was a farmer in Ohio, where he passed away. Mrs. Binger is the second eldest in a family
of four children: Anna, Dora, Mary and
William. Mrs. and Mrs. Binger are the
parents of three children. William and
Carl reside in Lockeford, and Gertrude is Mrs. Barker of Lodi. She has two children, Dorothy and
Charles. Mr. Binger is non-partisan in
his political views, preferring to vote for the candidate best fitted to
perform the duties of the office for which he was selected. Mr. Binger and his family are members of the
German Lutheran Church in Lodi. He has
made two trips back to his old home in Ohio, the first in 1911 and again in
1920. Each time, however, he was glad to
get back to his own home and enjoy the wonderful country and climate of
California. He may well be called a
self-made man, and is numbered among the progressive agriculturists of San
Joaquin County.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
908-911. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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