San
Joaquin County
Biographies
MRS. CHARLOTTE BABSON WHEELER CLOWES
Among the well-known pioneers of San
Joaquin County is Mrs. Charlotte Babson Wheeler Clowes, the owner of Cooper
Oaks, an excellent ranch of 354 acres, 60 acres of which is in alfalfa and the
intention is to plant more land to alfalfa. She is a good business manager, and since her
husband’s death has most creditably borne the obligations and duties laid upon
her. She is a native daughter of
California, having been born in Stockton, June 8, 1863, a daughter of Roscoe
and Helen Mar (Babson) Wheeler, both natives of Gloucester, Massachusetts. At the age of seventeen Roscoe Wheeler left
his native state and came to California via Panama, starting in 1849, and
arriving early in 1850, and here he married Miss Babson, who came hither in the
fall of 1860. Mrs. Clowes is the eldest
in a family of five children, the others being Helen M., deceased; Roscoe
Wheeler, who resides in Berkeley,
California; Susannah and Charles are both deceased. Roscoe Wheeler followed the
freighting business on the San Francisco Bay and San Joaquin River and at the
time of his death owned a tug and several vessels for freighting. In 1872-73 the family made their home in
Gloucester, Massachusetts, and in 1875 they took up their residence in Oakland,
California, and while residing there the father passed away at the age of
seventy, the mother living until she was seventy-eight.
Charlotte B. Wheeler received her education in
the Gloucester and Stockton grammar schools and the Oakland high school, from
which she was graduated, and on June 11, 1889, in Fruitvale, California, she
was married to Edward Cooper Clowes, also a native of Stockton, born June 9,
1859, a son of Benjamin S. and Mary Lester (Cooper) Clowes, natives of New York
and Hempstead, Long Island, respectively.
The maternal grandfather, Thomas Cooper, was a brother of Peter Cooper,
the great American philanthropist.
Benjamin S. Clowes was killed by an explosion in Stockton, while the
mother lived to be eighty-two years old.
Edward Cooper Clowes was one of a family of ten children and received
his education in the Stockton grammar and high schools, then spent two years in
the University of California. After
their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Clowes lived on the Cooper ranch on the north bank
of the Calaveras River on Cooper Lane.
This ranch was originally owned by J. B. L. Cooper and upon his death
passed to the eastern heirs. Mr. Clowes
was a nurseryman by trade and was engaged in that line while living on the
Cooper place, but found that the heavy black soil of that ranch was not so
suitable for his nursery business, so moved to Woodbridge. He passed away on the home place on March 28,
1902, after which Mrs. Clowes assumed the management of the ranch and by her
able management has paid off the mortgages and now the fine ranch of 354 acres
is clear of encumbrance. There were
three children in the family: Helen, a
graduate of the University of California, with the M. A. degree, ably assists
her mother in the management of the home place; Edward Cooper died at the age
of seven years; and Roscoe Wheeler is a member of the senior class of the
University of California. Mrs. Clowes conducts a dairy of 150 head of stock all
tuberculin tested and high-grade Holstein cows, and the milk supplies customers
in Stockton, from eight to twelve men being employed in the handling of the
cows and milk. On the ranch is a fine,
up-to-date dairy barn, equipped with the most modern and sanitary machines for
handling milk. Mrs. Clowes is a
Republican in politics and a member of the Pioneer Auxiliary Society of
Stockton.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
943-944. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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