San
Joaquin County
Biographies
PETER H. DENTONI
Stockton has always been fortunate
in its first-class drug stores, among which today that of the Stockton Drug
Company deserves mention as in the front rank, its
convenient situation, at the corner of Main and Sutter streets, having
naturally made it the headquarters for thousands seeking only the best
service. The junior partner, Peter H. Dentoni, was born near Genoa, Italy, on August 25, 1879 and
when only five years of age accompanied his parents across the seas to America,
in 1884, and then came immediately to Stockton.
His father, Giovanni Dentoni, followed
ranching in San Joaquin County, and so it happened that our subject attended
the Stockton public schools and started his business career, delivering
packages at the salary of $2 per week.
He opened the store at 6:30 a.m., and worked fourteen hours a day.
Growing up, and having chosen the
profession of pharmacist, he was graduated from the San Francisco College of
Pharmacy in 1900, and after that first worked for Messrs. Kohler & Ghiglieri, who conducted a small drug store on the spot
where he is now in business for himself.
He then became an assistant to John D. Gray, who conducted the Model
Drug Company at 44 East Main Street, in which concern, after awhile, he bought
a half interest. Selling out in 1907 he
formed a partnership with Joe M. Campodonico, and they bought the Stockton Drug
Company. Two years later the partners
also bought the Eagle Drug Company, which then had the site now occupied by the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Bank Building, and to make way for the bank block they
removed to 317 East Main Street. This
business they sold in 1917 to give their entire attention to their
rapidly-growing enterprise in their present location. Mr. Dentoni is a
member of the State Pharmaceutical Association and the National Retail
Druggists’ Association. He is a large
stockholder in the Bank of Italy and for a number of years was
part owner of the St. Catherine ranch in the Delta district, where he was
associated with some of the leading farmers of the county in the growing of
grain, beans and potatoes. He is a
charter member of both the Stockton Italian Club and the Eagles, and he is a
member of Stockton Lodge No. 218, Elks; the Red Men, the Woodmen of the World,
and the Fraternal Brotherhood.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1288. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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