San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WILLIAM R. DUFF
Associated with the street car
service of Stockton for more than thirty years, William R. Duff, now
superintendent of the car barns of the Stockton Electric Railway, has aided
materially in the expansion and growth of this vital factor of
transportation. A native of Illinois, he
was born in Henry County, July 4, 1865 a son of James and Elizabeth (Leggett)
Duff. The latter passed away when he was
a small child and at the age of fourteen he started out for himself, working on
farms, and this he continued until 1891 when he was twenty-five years old. On coming to California he settled at
Stockton and entered the employ of the Stockton Street Railway Company, later
the Stockton Electric Railway, as track section man, and then for four months
drove a mule car. At that time there
were but two lines in the city: the San
Joaquin and the Main and El Dorado.
After spending some time in the car shops as a repair man, Mr. Duff then
took up his duties at the horse car stables, and when electrification was
accomplished he was one of the first to operate the new cars, both as motorman
and conductor. Again taking up repair
work in the shops, he became night foreman and his competent service gained him
the promotion to the position he now occupies, that of superintendent of the
car barns. When Mr. Duff started with
the company there were seven mule cars, and now there are twenty-five large
electric cars in operation daily, so that he has had a large part in helping
modernize Stockton’s transportation facilities during his long years of
faithful service, and is now the company’s oldest employee.
Mr. Duff’s marriage which occurred
in Illinois on November 12, 1890 united him with Miss Rebecca Tuttle, also a
native of Illinois, whose father, John Tuttle, was a ‘49er, crossing the plains
in an ox-team train. He later returned
to his Illinois home but made three subsequent trips to visit his daughter in
California. Mr. and Mrs. Duff have two
sons, both of whom served their country during the World War. William James was at the Goat Island Naval
Training Center and is now a pattern maker; he married Hazel Coffelt and they have a daughter, Lois Vivian. Walter Vernon is a fireman with the Southern
Pacific Railroad. He was also in the U.
S. Navy, first on the Independence and later on the Louisville, making a number
of trips to France during the war. Mr.
Duff is prominent in the ranks of the Odd Fellows, having joined Truth Lodge,
No. 55, over twenty-nine years ago.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1315. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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