San
Joaquin County
Biographies
AUGUST DANGERS
One of the earliest pioneers of
Roberts Island who gave of his energy and resourcefulness to the reclaiming and
developing of the Island from tule and swamp land until it has become one of
the most fertile sections in the state, is the late August Dangers, a man who
was highly respected and much loved. He
was born in Mandelsbach, Hanover, Germany, September
11, 1833, where he grew to manhood and received a good education in the
excellent schools of that country.
When eighteen years of age, in 1851,
he made his way to Fredericksburg, Gillespie County, Texas, and in 1854 he was
joined by his parents and brothers and sisters and followed farming and cattle
ranching. Wishing to obtain good farming
land he concluded to investigate conditions in Central America, so in 1859 he
made the trip to Panama locating in the Province of Chiriquí. He engaged in raising pineapples but found he
could not dispose of them to advantage on account of the Civil War in the U.
S. After about three years he determined
to come on to California, arriving in Stockton in 1862. His brothers joined him in 1870 and his
parents came in 1873. Mr. Dangers
engaged in farming and soon afterwards located on Roberts Island where he
purchased 320 acres of land and helped to build the levees from the beginning
of the reclamation of that island, engaging in raising grain and horses. However, the recurrence of floods caused him
heavy damages and the repeated expense of rebuilding the levee was too much and
he met with heavy losses. He spent his last
days in Stockton, passing away in 1905 at the age of seventy-nine years.
Mr. Dangers was a well-informed man;
always a great reader he was an advanced thinker, particularly on lines
pertaining to agriculture. He saw the
need for irrigation and of intensive farming for the fertile San Joaquin County
lands and how they could be made to yield a big increase by irrigation and that
the additional expense necessary to put water on the lands would be returned
many fold. He was an advocate of the
raising of sugar beets which has since been demonstrated a success in the
county. He was a correspondent of the
Stockton Independent and his articles were always interesting, showing much
thought and reflection.
The marriage of Mr. Dangers occurred
in Stockton, uniting him with Miss Ida Saloman, a daughter of Max and Mina
Saloman, pioneers of San Joaquin County.
Mr. Saloman has passed on but his widow is still living, making her home
with her granddaughter, Miss Dangers.
Mrs. August Dangers passed away soon after her marriage leaving two
daughters, Erna, who died at twenty-six years, and Juanita, the youngest. Being bereaved of her mother in her first
year Juanita was reared in the home of her grandmother, Mrs. Mina Saloman, in
Stockton. After completing the public
schools she entered the employ of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company
and she is still in their employ. She is
a member of the Saturday Afternoon Club.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
576. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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