San Joaquin County
Biographies
SOLOMON LYTLE CONFER
SOLOMON LYTLE CONFER, of the
firm of Confer & McDougald, manufacturers of San Joaquin river brick, was
born in Ohio, in 1838, a son of Solomon and Jane (Lytle) Confer. The mother a
native of Ohio, of Irish descent, was married in Dayton and died in Greene County,
Ohio, of child-birth, at the age of thirty-six, leaving five children, all
living in 1890. The father, a native of Maryland, came to Ohio with his parents
and settled in Greene County. He lived to the age of sixty-eight, dying in
Terre Haute, Indiana. Grandfather Michael Confer, born in Germany, first
settled in Maryland, and afterward moved to Ohio, settling on a farm in Greene
County, near Yellow Springs, being one of the pioneers in that section.
S. L. Confer, learned the trade of
bricklayer in Rock Island, Illinois, from the age of sixteen to twenty, and
there worked two years at his trade as journeyman. He came to California in
1860, across the plains, arriving in Stockton, whither his brother William,
still residing in this city, had preceded him. S. L. Confer has followed his
trade of mason and builder here for twenty-eight years, being partner with his
brother William, under the style of Confer Brothers, from 1881 to 1888. In May,
1889, he engaged in the manufacture of brick at Lindstrom’s Ferry, on the San
Joaquin, under the style of Confer & McDonald, he being the manager of the
business, employing from forty to fifty hands in the working season.
He was married in Stockton, in 1866, to
Miss Annie Campbell, a native of Providence, Rhode Island, who died in 1881, at
the age of thirty-eight, leaving three children: Charles Henry, born in 1872, a
pupil in the high school in 1890; Frank Solomon, born in 1875; Frederick
William, born in 1881. Mr. Confer was again married in this city, in January, 1884,
to Miss Katie S. Hawkins, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, who had come to
California in 1879, with her mother and two sisters, now residing in San
Francisco.
Mr. Confer is a member of Stockton Lodge,
No. 68, F. & A. M.; of Royal Arch Chapter, No. 28; of Stockton Commandery,
No. 8; of Homo Lodge, O. E. S.; of Truth Lodge, No. 55, I. O. O. F., and of
Stockton Lodge, A. O. U. W.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 616-617. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Genealogy Databases