San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN CHARLESWORTH
A representative business man of
Stockton, John Charlesworth is a man who not only has achieved individual
success but has also public-spiritedly devoted himself to the general welfare
of his fellow-citizens, and has been foremost in advancing enterprises and improvements
which will prove of lasting benefit to the city, county and state. He was born near Homedale, Wayne County,
Pennsylvania, on January 28, 1869, but was reared and educated in the state of
Kansas. His father, Firth Charlesworth,
was born in England and came to the United States when he was twenty-two years
of age. He located in southern Illinois
where he was married in 1858 to Amanda Breakbill, who
was born in Kentucky and comes from an old Virginia family, her ancestors being
among the earliest settlers of Jamestown and some of them served in the
Revolutionary and the War of 1812. Firth
Charlesworth served as a captain of Company L 6th Illinois Cavalry,
in the Civil War. In 1871 he brought his
family to Mitchell County, Kansas, and became a pioneer homesteader on Salt Creek
near Beloit; later he disposed of his farm and engaged in mercantile business
in Beloit. Although sixty-two years of
age at the time of the breaking out of the Spanish-American War he raised a
company and was commissioned captain of Company C, 22nd Kansas
Volunteer Infantry, serving until the regiment was mustered out. He was prominent in G. A. R. and
Spanish-American War Veterans’ circles.
He was a very prominent man in Kansas politics, serving as assemblyman
in the legislature, and he was quartermaster-general of Kansas with the rank of
colonel at the time of his death twenty-two years ago. His widow makes her home in Topeka; she was
the mother of six children, five of whom are living, John being the fourth.
His education was obtained in the
public school and he was graduated from Beloit High in 1887, after which he
learned the trade of sheet metal worker in Beloit; later he established a
hardware business in Scottsville, Kansas, continuing about seven years. After he sold his business he became a grain
buyer with headquarters in Quenemo, which occupied him for six years. In 1908 he decided to try his fortune in the
west, where he worked at his trade in Utah, Idaho, Washington and Nevada, and
in 1914 came to Stockton to manage the sheet metal department of the Stockton
Plumbing Supply Company, which position he has filled most capably to the
entire satisfaction of his employers.
In January, 1921, Mr. Charlesworth
was chosen by his fellow members of the San Joaquin County Building Trades
Council to fill the position of president, where his natural bent for
organizing and his ability as a presiding officer have been satisfactorily
demonstrated; he is also chairman of the Conference Committee of the council. He keeps in direct touch with all matters of
importance to the council and cooperates with every enterprise and measure for
the welfare of the city.
Mr. Charlesworth was married to
Beloit, Kansas, to Miss Mary Holder, a native of that city, a union that proved
very happy until Mr. Charlesworth was bereaved of his faithful wife in
1908. She left two sons: Firth, at the age of eighteen volunteered and
served in the 35th Division in the World War, being sent overseas,
and served for a year in the Argonne and other places on the French front. He is now engaged in business in Hesston,
Kansas. Elwin has just been discharged
from three and one-half years’ service in the U. S. Navy and also makes his home
in Hesston, Kansas.
During his residence in Quenemo, Kansas, Mr. Charlesworth
was a member of the city council and later was elected mayor of the city. At the city election in Stockton on May 2,
1922, he was one of the fifteen freeholders selected to draft a new city
charter for the city of Stockton. Having
had considerable experience in city government he threw himself into the work
and took an active part in originating the city charter now before the people
particularly on the franchise committee, but he was also on the powers of the
council, police, fire department, law, civil service and contracts
committees. He is an active member of
the Stockton Chamber of commerce.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1048-1051. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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