San
Joaquin County
Biographies
MRS. FANNIE V. CARLETON
On the roll of the honored pioneer
women of the Golden State is found the name of Mrs. Fannie V. Carleton who is
also a native daughter of California and San Joaquin County, having been born
on January 19, 1859, on the Howland ranch near Lathrop, a daughter of Humphrey
S. and Barbara (Meyer) Howland, the former a native of New England, while the
latter was born in Switzerland. Humphrey
S. Howland was born July 14, 1827, near New Bedford, Massachusetts, and when
seven years of age was taken by his parents, Henry and Abbie (Sherman) Howland,
to Seneca County, Ohio, where they lived on a farm until 1850. In August, 1848, Humphrey S. Howland was
married to Barbara Meyer and the following year they moved to Indiana and
engaged in farming until 1852, when they started for California. They traveled for many long days, continuing
on their way until the weeks had lengthened into months, but at length their eyes
were gladden by the sight of the fertile valleys of the Pacific Coast. The family home was established in San
Joaquin County, and they lived much of the time near Lathrop.
Humphrey S. Howland was a typical
pioneer settler of California of the class who bravely faced the dangers and
privations of life on the frontier. In
1854 he purchased 140 acres from Capt. Charles Weber situated on what was then
known as the Slocum Ferry Road, for which he paid three dollars per acre. In the spring of 1857 he sold this farm for
six dollars per acre intending to return to his eastern home, but in 1858 he
bought 160 acres which he improved and held until 1869 when he sold it to the
Central Pacific Railroad Company. He
then bought 160 acres from Mr. James Buchanan and lived there until 1884 when
he built the house and the home place where our subject now resides. In 1873 the father and mother visited their
old home in Seneca County, Ohio, making the journey in six days that had taken
them six months to make twenty years before.
They were five children born to Humphrey S. Howland and his wife: Mrs. Anna L. Briggs, born May 8, 1849, who
accompanied her parents across the plains in 1852 and is now the only survivor
of that party; Leroscoe and LeRoy,
twins, were born January 26, 1854. Leroscoe is a farmer at Lathrop and LeRoy passed away in
Tulare County in 1907, survived by his widow; Mrs. Fannie V. Carleton is the
subject of this sketch; Oliver M., born March 19, 1865, is deceased and is
survived by his widow, who resides in Stockton.
Humphrey S. Howland passed away May 22, 1899, mourned by all who knew
him, his wife surviving him until June 4, 1912, passing away at her daughter’s
home in Lathrop at the venerable age of eighty-six years.
Fannie V. Howland received a good
education at Stockton and grew to womanhood on her father’s farm near Lathrop
and taught school in San Joaquin County for four years. On November 12, 1882, she was married to
Franklin Pierce Carleton, a native of Augusta, Maine, who came to California in
1874. They are the parents of two
children: Ida E. is the wife of Lyman L.
Huntley and they have five children and reside near Escalon; Ethel Marie is a
teacher in the public schools of San Joaquin County. For ten years she was the president of the
local W. C. T. U. and also the head of the Red Cross work at Lathrop. The comfortable and attractive home of Mrs.
Carleton is the scene of good, old-time hospitality enjoyed by her large circle
of friends. Since 1920 Mrs. Carleton has
been serving on the advisory board of the East Union Cemetery Memorial Grounds
near Manteca.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
795. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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