San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOSEPH DOUGLAS CONDON
A
California agriculturist who well deserves the enviable repute he enjoys, both
as an experienced and enterprising, and altogether successful rancher, and as a
broad-minded, progressive citizen, is Joseph Douglas Condon, living on Upper
Roberts Island, about thirteen and one-quarter miles southwest of Stockton,
where he has seventy acres. He is a
retired Delta reclamation engineer, and it is not surprising that he now owns
some of the richest farmlands in this part of the state.
Mr. Condon was born on Cape
Hopewell, New Brunswick, on December 28, 1856, the same day, by the way, on
which Woodrow Wilson first saw the light, and enjoyed the best of early
educational advantages at a private academy.
When eighteen years of age he decided to go to sea, and so he entered
the employ of Messrs. L. H. De Veber & Company,
who operated trans-Atlantic sailing vessels, and entered upon an apprenticeship
under the redoubtable Captain Carter. He
followed a seaman’s life for five years, and in that time went three times
around the Cape of Good Hope, sailed the Indian Ocean and the Sea of China,
entered the South Atlantic and visited the Isles of the Southern Pacific, Rio
de Janeiro, the West Indies and the British Isles, and to the ports of
Continental Europe, while also visiting all or most of the important ports on
the Atlantic seaboard, in the United States, and along the great Gulf of
Mexico.
He made his first trip into the
Golden Gate in 1877, first walking the streets of San Francisco on August 7,
1877, sailing in on the Madura, a barque of 1,000 tons burden from Hong Kong,
China, and at that time he had no intention of remaining in California; but
after another trip to the Pacific and its beautiful tropic isles, which took
twenty months, he returned to San Francisco in 1879 and disembarked there, and
has been a resident of California ever since.
Making his headquarters in San Francisco, Mr. Condon entered the employ
of the Nelson & Adams Lumber Company and took up sailing on coastwise
vessels, making two trips, one to Eureka and one to Puget Sound.
While in Honolulu Mr. Condon had his
first engineering experience, that of construction work on the factory and mill
of the Heeia Sugar Plantation, and this experience
brought a bountiful return, for in 1880 he was able to enter the employ of J.
Hackett, owner of the Pacific Dredge Company, during dredging operations at the
transit wharf, Oakland, in the Oakland creek and channel. Mr. Condon in 1883 came to Union Isle, and on
the 7th of August associated himself with Captain Adams for five
years, as engineer in charge of the river dredging and levee building. He thus helped to reclaim thousands of acres
of Delta land now farmed by large interests, and for many years past famous for
their heavy production. In 1888 he took
charge of Dredger No. 3 on the Jersey Isle, and three years later he moved onto
Twitchell Isle, reclaiming the lands later owned by
ex-Senator Twitchell.
In 1892 Mr. Condon retired from
active service and bought a tract of land, his present home-place, in the
improvement of which he spent much time and money, bringing it up to its
present fine condition. He had been
given United States citizenship in Judge Jones’ court at Stockton, and ever
since entering into civic responsibilities he has discharged his patriotic
duties in the most conscientious manner possible.
At Bethany in 1888, Mr. Condon was
married to Miss Lydia Hewson, second child of Edward
and Margaret Hewson of Bethany, and their union was
blessed with the birth of four children:
Marjorie is deceased; John Edward served in the World War and is now a
teacher in the public schools of San Joaquin County; Hattie Violet is a gifted
art student and illustrator; and Jessie Lydia is a student in art. With such a gifted family to live for it is
sad to relate that Mrs. Condon passed away on December 31, 1913, a real loss
both to her intimate circle and to the community at large.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1387. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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