San
Joaquin County
Biographies
FRANK DYCKMAN COBB
Among Stockton’s most successful
businessmen, whose time and energies were devoted to its permanent improvement
both in its commercial and civic advancement, was Frank Dyckman Cobb, one of
the city’s most public-spirited citizens and his passing away on May 9, 1919, removed from its activities a staunch supporter of all the
community’s forward movements. Mr. Cobb
was a native of Michigan, born in Kalamazoo on May 1, 1849, the son of Samuel
P. and Prudence (Dyckman) Cobb, both representatives of old Eastern families,
the father a native of Vermont, while Mrs. Cobb was born in New York, in
Onondaga County on October 9, 1828.
After her husband’s death on November 26, 1852, she became with wife of Marshall
Hale and passed away in California in January, 1907.
Frank D. Cobb was educated in the
public schools of his native state and at Hillsdale College, Michigan. At the age of nineteen he entered the bank of
his grandfather, E. B. Dyckman, at Schoolcraft, Michigan, where he obtained a
training that was of value to him in later years. Later he became a partner of his stepfather,
Marshall Hale, in a general store at Schoolcraft, under the name of Hale &
Cobb. In 1872 he bought out Mr. Hale’s
interest and went into business with W. B. Cobb and later he was associated
with his brother-in-law, O. H. Barnhart, under the name of Barnhart & Cobb,
carrying on a store, lumber yard and a 200-acre farm.
In 1878, Frank D. Cobb disposed of
his extensive interests in Michigan and came to San Jose, California, where his
stepfather and mother and their six children had preceded him in 1875. In 1879 he became a partner in the firm of O.
A. Hale & Company, which has since been incorporated under the name of Hale
Bros., Inc. In 1884 Mr. Cobb located in
Sacramento as manager of Hale Bros., and in the fall of 1885 he came to
Stockton as manager of the company’s thriving establishment here, and at once
became identified with the city’s progressive element. As one of the organizers, with O. A. Hale, of
the Commercial Savings Bank of Stockton, Mr. Cobb had an important place in
guiding the financial affairs of this city and he occupied the office of
vice-president from its organization until his death.
Besides his mercantile and banking
interests, Mr. Cobb was the owner of a valuable tract of thirty-one and a half
acres of the old Shippee place on Cherokee Lane, and
here he developed a fine orchard and vineyard.
Fine horses were his particular hobby and he owned some fine trotting
and driving stock, in which he took great pride and pleasure. He was appointed by Governor James Budd as a
member of the State Agricultural Society and was active at the annual State
Fair held in Sacramento in the days when trotting and pacing events were the
chief attraction. An excellent judge of
horses, he frequently acted as judge in the races held at Stockton by the San
Joaquin County Fair Association.
In Schoolcraft, Michigan, Mr. Cobb
was married to Miss Hattie Myers, a native of that state, and the daughter of
Henry B. and Mary Ann (Randall) Myers, old Eastern families of Holland Dutch
and French descent, respectively. Mr.
and Mrs. Cobb became the parents of two children: Boyd S., who lives in Los Angeles, is married
and has one daughter; Mrs. Carra Prentis
Cobb Giesea of Oakland is the mother of four
children. Mr. Cobb was prominent in
Masonry and was a member of San Joaquin Lodge No. 19, F. & A. M., Stockton
Chapter R. A. M., Stockton Commandery No. 8, K. T., Islam Temple, A. A. O. N.
M. S., of San Francisco, and he was a charter member of the Stockton Lodge No
218, B. P. O. E. Mr. Cobb was a man of a
very pleasing personality and endowed by nature with much business acumen,
coupled with a generous and kind disposition, he was very helpful to the needy
and many worthy families in need received generous help from him. However, all his benefactions were
accomplished in an unostentatious manner.
These traits made him greatly loved by all who knew him and his passing
left a void in the community that could not be filled. A splendid type of citizen, Mr. Cobb loved
Stockton and always predicted its great future, and the influence of his
upright life will ever make itself felt.
Mrs. Cobb continues to carry on her husband’s charities as far as she is
able and in her modest and quiet way still makes her home at the Cobb
residence, 430 North Sutter Street, where she is surrounded by a large circle
of devoted friends, who appreciate her many attributes of mind and heart.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
367. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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