San
Joaquin County
Biographies
ERNEST P. CAMPBELL
Among the progressive and far-seeing
businessmen of Stockton is Ernest P. Campbell, a mechanical inventor and the
owner and proprietor of the Campbell Auto Works, 238 North El Dorado
Street. He has built up a business that
extends among auto and truck and tractor owners in all sections of the country.
He was born in Jewell County,
Kansas, on December 13, 1886, and was reared and educated in his native
county. When he reached the age of nineteen
he spent four years learning the machinist’s trade in the railroad shops of the
St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad at Neodesha, Kansas; then he was employed
in the shops of the Standard Oil Company of the same place; he then went to
Kansas City, Missouri, and was in the shops of the Missouri Pacific
Railroad. Early in 1908 he arrived in
Stockton and entered the employ of Charles F. Holman as head of the machine
shop; later Mr. Holman sold his business and Mr. Campbell purchased the
mechanical equipment and in 1910 opened his own automobile repair business on
Main Street in the building now occupied by the Colonial Theater. Starting in a small way with but one lathe,
his business has steadily grown and in 1912 he moved to his present commodious
quarters at 238 North El Dorado Street, where he has an up-to-date machine
shop, fully equipped for all kinds of repair work.
Mr. Campbell is an inventor of
established fame who has created implements highly useful to the auto world,
the Campbell combination bearing puller and race extractor being especially
valuable in the pulling of magnetos and electrical generator bearings, one of
the most timely productions of the age. It is in general use among automobile and
tractor owners. All wide-awake mechanics
and shop owners who have seen the Campbell bearing puller work speak highly of
it. He has also put on the market the
Campbell expansion cylinder reamer for the successful re-boring of automobile
engine cylinders; these tools are being sent to all parts of the United States,
the fame of the products having spread everywhere, and shipments are made
daily. The Campbell Works make a
specialty of auto repairing and rebuilding and make over all kinds of
machinery, the work being personally supervised by Mr. Campbell. He employs skilled mechanics and the
well-equipped factory is properly provided for handling repairs
expeditiously. A specialty is made of
complete overhauling of all makes of automobiles, trucks and tractor
engines. Mr. Campbell has built up a
trade and a patronage that extend among auto, truck and tractor owners in all
sections of the country. He is an alert
businessman who believes in results, and his friends and patrons are legion
throughout the Stockton and Delta sections.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1432. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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