San
Joaquin County
Biographies
EDWARD DUNNE
A worthy, highly-esteemed pioneer of
San Joaquin County who was always of particular interest as a relative of John
Redmond, the famous Irish Nationalist, was the late Edward Dunne, a native of
Ireland, where he was born in County Wexford on March 30, 1853. He came to the United States when he was
still a boy, and for a time made his home in Baltimore; then, pushing out to
the great west, he reached San Francisco in 1877. Soon after reaching that city he entered the
firm of the Nolan Shoe Company, relatives of his, and there mastered the shoe
trade, applying himself assiduously because of his expectation of establishing
himself in business some day. In 1884 he
came to Stockton to open a store for that manufacturing concern in the Masonic
Building. A few months later he bought
the business and moved to a better location on Main Street where he became
particularly well known to the public.
Mr. Dunne constructed the first crosswalk on Main Street, which ran from
his store across the street to the Yosemite Hotel and for many years all street
cars stopped at the crossing, making it especially agreeable in wet
weather. He it was who inaugurated the
lighting of the store fronts in the city also.
Some years after he had opened his store Mr. Dunne bought out the store
in Fresno formerly owned by the Nolan Company, but sold it later on and devoted
his entire time to the Stockton store.
He was a master of every detail in his line of activity, and was always
studying, in the minutest detail, the needs of his customers, often
anticipating their wants. The result was
that once a customer of Mr. Dunne, the patron seldom or never left him. Another result was that Mr. Dunne, full of
local pride, never neglected any opportunity to build up the commercial
interests of the community as a whole, not merely considering his own
advancement, but standing ready to do his neighbor and his competitors a good
turn if he could.
In 1883 at San Francisco, Mr. Dunne
was married to Miss Alice Gibney, also a native of
Ireland; and they had twelve children, all of whom were born in Stockton. Frank, Joseph, William, Leo and Edward Dunne
are the sons in Stockton, while Vincent and Ray are law students at the
University of California; Mary, Helen and Dorothy Dunne are in Stockton;
Theresa, Mrs. Alden White, lives in Berkeley; and Loretta, Mrs. Joseph White,
resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mr.
Dunne was both a loyal member of the Catholic Church and a very loyal citizen
of the United States, especially devoted to Stockton. He was a charter member of the Yosemite Club
and of the Young Men’s Institute.
Francis, Joseph, Leo, and W. H. Dunne were associated with him in
business; Joseph was in France for two years in the World War, Leo also served,
as a member of the navy, almost as long in foreign waters; and Ray was in
officers’ training camp fitting himself for active
duty when the armistice was signed. Mr.
Dunne died on November 23, 1919, and will be sadly missed; for, honorable,
upright and faithful in his family relations and religious duties, he was a
true man, and one who left as a heritage to his children the record of an
unblemished character.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
697. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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