San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN H. CLANCY
A well-known citizen and
representative orchardist of the Lodi section of San Joaquin County is John H.
Clancy, who has worked his way steadily upward from a humble financial position
to one of affluence, and the visible proof of his life of industry in his farm
of eighty acres, highly improved with modern equipment. A New Yorker by birth, born at Florence,
April 21, 1852, he is a son of Daniel and Mary (Falvey)
Clancy, the former a native of County Cork, Ireland, and the latter of
Newfoundland. There were eleven children
in the family: John H., Mary, Hannah,
Thomas A., Rena, William, Ella, Emma, Norbert, Almira and James. In 1861 the family removed to California and
settled at San Pablo. The father was
accidently killed when he was fifty-eight years old, but the mother lived to be
seventy-two years old. On account of
being the eldest of a large family, John H. Clancy was called upon to do manual
work at an early age. He received a
grammar school education, which was later supplemented by a commercial course,
graduating from the Pacific Business College at San Francisco at the age of
twenty. In 1875 he went to Santa Clara
County and found work on a ranch near Menlo Park, where he remained for two
years; then went to Santa Barbara County where he was the superintendent of the
2,000-acre ranch of Ellwood Cooper, for the next nine years. In 1888 he removed to Acampo and
superintended the ranch of A. T. Hatch for a year and a half. His next move was to San Juan Capistrano
where he superintended the ranch of John L. Truslow
for one year; then he was induced to return to Acampo and assumed the
superintendency of the 800-acre ranch of the Buck-Cory Company, devoted to
orchard and vineyard, remaining with this company until 1913.
On April 21, 1886 at Goleta,
California, Mr. Clancy was married to Miss Fannie M. Towne, a native of
Petaluma, California, a daughter of Edward and Fannie Towne. Edward Towne was an early settler of
California and engaged in farming for a livelihood. When Mrs. Clancy was six years old her
parents removed to Santa Barbara and there she received her education. Mr. and Mrs. Clancy have seven sons: Ellwood, Roy, Cecil, Ellmore,
Maurice, Dewey and Hull. In 1905 Mr.
Clancy purchased twenty acres of land in Christian Colony adjoining the Buck
ranch and the following year he added ten acres to his original holdings, and
from time to time purchased more land until he now owns eighty acres, all of
which is devoted to an orchard of prunes, peaches and almonds. Mr. Clancy served as constable of Acampo for
ten consecutive years and was also justice of the peace for four years. Mr. Clancy supports the men and measures of
the Republican Party and fraternally is a member of Channel City Lodge, I. O.
O. F. of Santa Barbara; also Harmony Encampment of Lodi, and Canton Ridgley of
Stockton No. 131, F. & A. M. and Woodbridge Eastern Star chapter. Mrs. Clancy is a prominent member and past
noble grand of the Rebekah Assembly of California and also a member of the
Eastern Star of Woodbridge. Recently she was the honored guest at the regular
meeting of the Rainbow Past Noble Grands Association,
at which time Mrs. Clancy was presented with an appropriate token of the esteem
of the members of the association. She
related many interesting reminiscences of her experiences gathered visiting
Rebekah lodges throughout the state and also imparted many helpful ideas for
the future work of the association.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
747. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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