San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WILLIAM C. COLBERG
For a number of years having been
closely identified with the business interests of the city, William C. Colberg
is a man of keen discrimination and judgment, and his executive ability and excellent
management have brought to the Colberg Motor Boats, of which he is the head, a
large degree of success. The safe policy
which he inaugurated in his business career has secured to the company a
patronage which makes the volume of trade transacted of considerable
magnitude. He was born in New York City,
January 25, 1871, a son of Charles and Katherine (Menke)
Colberg, both natives of Germany. The father brought his family to California
in 1875 and located in San Francisco, where he worked at his trade of
cabinetmaker until 1881, when he removed to Stockton and was employed by the
Houser Harvester Company, their plant being located where the Roberts &
Clark Planing Mill on South Center Street now stands; later he removed to Los
Angeles and again engaged in his trade.
There were five children in the family:
William C., Kate, Martha, Charles and Henry J. Both parents are now deceased.
William C. Colberg received his
education in the schools of Stockton and when the family removed to Los Angeles
he learned the cabinetmaker’s trade under his father. Returning to Stockton, he secured employment
with the Houser-Haines Harvester Company and while in their employ in 1898, ran
his first boat to the Delta district. When he first began the transportation business
N. P. Anderson was associated with Mr. Colberg in his enterprise and their
first boat was a small craft that carried supplies to Bouldin
Island. As the business grew, new boats
were added until the company now operate and own twenty motor boats on the
river. This well handled organization
not only operate some of the finest launches in use in the Delta country, but
own and operate an extensive, modern shipyard, where they have built boats of
all descriptions and keep their own fleet in the finest of seagoing condition,
ready for all emergencies, their yards covering several acres. During the past two years the Colberg Boat
Works have been exceptionally busy.
Orders for boats have been numerous, much new machinery has been added
to the various departments, new lathes installed, and several additional boats
built for the Colberg fleet, among them the Holland, a beautiful craft,
sixty-four feet long, with a speed of fifteen miles, for passenger and freight
service. The Colberg Boat Works have
also turned out splendid boats for private interests. Among these are the
John, a 110 foot twin screw freighter, the Herbert, a powerful towboat built
for the Zuckerman Merchants Transportation Company. Boats were constructed also for the Stockton
Growers’ Exchange, produce buyers, doing a big Delta business; the Atlantic
Produce Company of Stockton and San Francisco; the I. Akaba
Company, wholesalers of Stockton, and others.
Mr. Colberg is in the near future contemplating the construction of a
large excursion boat and several large freighters. During the recent war activities the Colberg
yards did contract and emergency work for the Government. Much work is being done for the state in the
way of repairs and building of water crafts.
The Colberg Motor Boats operate a fleet of powerful passenger and
express-freight boats and the patronage extends into all sections of the river
country in and out of Stockton, general offices being established and
maintained with warehouse and shipping facilities in the heart of the business
section of Stockton. Regular schedules
are maintained and the highest system of efficiency provided patrons of the
organization. The Colberg idea
throughout all departments is modern efficiency: a service of the highest class. That this objective has been attained and is
maintained is best attested by the growing population of the Colberg boats.
The business is owned by William C.
Colberg and Henry J. Colberg, the latter having been in partnership with his
brother since 1912. After his graduation
from the Stanford University he was employed by the Westinghouse Company in the
east and later was engineer in the building of the Standard Oil Company’s
pipeline in California. In his fraternal
affiliations he is a Mason and William C. Colberg is a member of the Stockton
Lodge of Elks.
The marriage of William C. Colberg
united him with Miss Rosamond Gower, a native of Fresno, California. Her grandfather, Sewell Gower, was a pioneer
of San Joaquin County. Mr. Colberg is
ever alert to opportunity, knows the entire Delta country through years of
intimate personal connections, keeps pace with the demands of the people and is
ever responsive to the call of modern service.
His friends know him as a man of genuine worth, and entertain for him a
high regard.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
733. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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