San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WILFORD H. BURGESS
A man who has been instrumental in
the upbuilding of the city of Stockton and environs is Wilford H. Burgess,
superintendent of bridge construction for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company
for the Stockton division. He was born
in San Francisco, California, on July 10, 1870, the son of a California pioneer
who came from Newark, Wayne County, New York, via the Isthmus of Panama in
1858, locating in San Francisco, where he remained until 1862, when he located
in Sacramento and there conducted a livery stable, but was driven out by the
floods of that year. In 1868 he returned
east and was married to Almira C. Harmon, a native of Phelps, Ontario County,
New York. Bringing his wife to California
via Panama, he settled in San Francisco, but in 1880 moved to Napa County,
where he had bought a small ranch in 1871.
Wilford H. Burgess received his
education in the public schools of Napa and in 1895 became associated with the
engineering department in constructing the Alameda and San Joaquin Railroad
under George A. Atherton of Stockton.
Two years later, in 1898, he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific
Railroad Company and helped in the construction of the Harrison Street Bridge
over the estuary in Oakland, under W. S. Palmer, division engineer, and D.
Robertson, bridge superintendent. Mr.
Burgess continued with the engineering force in construction work as rod man
and assistant engineer, during which time he installed the fuel oil plants in
the division, this being the year that the railroad changed their locomotives
from coal to oil burners. On September
5, 1903, he became roadmaster at Tracy, and one year
later, on June 10, 1904, was transferred to Stockton serving in the same capacity. On November 1, 1910, the Stockton division
was established and Mr. Burgess was appointed supervisor of bridges and buildings,
and many structures which bear evidence of his skill and ability are to be seen
throughout the Stockton division. He has
built approaches to numerous bridges in the division, including the approach to
the San Joaquin bridge at Herndon; he also erected the
concrete roundhouse at Tracy.
The marriage of Mr. Burgess in 1892
united him with Miss Clara V. Beguhl, a native of San
Francisco, and they are the parents of five children: Howard H., a student in the dental department
of the University of California; Edith M., the wife of Gordon C. Patterson of
Stockton; Lloyd E., a student in the engineering department of the University
of California; Ruth A.; and Dorothy V.
Fraternally Mr. Burgess is a member of San Joaquin Lodge No. 19, F.
& A. M.; Stockton Chapter No. 28, R. A. M.; Stockton Council No. 10, R.
& S. M., and the Independent Order of Foresters. He is a member of the American Railway
Bridges and Building Association.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1423-1424. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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