San
Joaquin County
Biographies
ELBERT ALLEN COVELL
Prominent among the well-to-do
citizens of Woodbridge is Elbert Allen Covell, a native of San Leandro, Alameda
County, where he was born on February 5, 1874.
His father, Allen T. Covell, came to California in 1856 from New York;
he was a carpenter by trade, but like thousands of others at that time, he
joined the rush to the mines. He did not
follow mining long, however, but turned to civil engineering, and in 1876
removed to Fresno County, where he helped to lay out and establish the
Washington Irrigated Colony. In 1888 he
came to Woodbridge where he acquired land which in time he set out as a
vineyard. Allen T. Covell lived to be eigthty-two years old; his devoted wife, who was Mary
Elizabeth Sherwin before her marriage, reached her sixtieth year. They had four children, three boys and a
girl.
Elbert Allen Covell attended the
Woodbridge common school, and afterwards was a student at the San Joaquin
Valley College. When he was old enough to
do so, he took up farm work taking charge of a portion of the vineyard which
his father had set out; while his brother George F. also took over a part of
the vineyard ranch. The whole property
consisted of 160 acres. Today Mr. Covell
owns thirty choice acres set out to Tokay grapes, west of the town, and this
trim little farm is well irrigated. He
and his brother together own a ranch of 270 acres in Stanislaus County, between
Salida and Modesto, mostly set out to vineyard.
At Stockton on August 3, 1904, Mr.
Covell was married to Miss Florence McMurtry, the
daughter of Lewis C. McMurtry. She was born in Gold Hill, Nevada. Her father, a well-known hotel man, came to
Woodbridge when she was a little girl, and here she was reared and
educated. Mr. Covell was made a Mason in
Woodbridge Lodge No. 131, F. & A. M., of which he is a past master. He is a member of Stockton Chapter No. 28, R.
A. M.; Stockton Commandery No. 8, K. T.; and Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.,
San Francisco; and with his wife he is a member of Woodbridge Chapter No. 118,
O. E. S., of which he is a past patron and Mrs. Covell is a past matron. In 1922 Mr. and Mrs. Covell made a four-month
trip to Europe visiting England, Scotland and the Continent.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1583. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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