San
Joaquin County
Biographies
HENRY F. ELLIS
A leader in every movement for the
advancement of his home district, Henry F. Ellis of Lodi, manager of the
Stewart Fruit Company here, had an interesting career in the newspaper field
before becoming associated with the fruit industry. A son of California pioneers, Mr. Ellis was
born in Napa County, January 23, 1866, his parents being Ralph and Caroline (Everets) Ellis, both now deceased, the former a native of
New York, while Mrs. Ellis was born in Indiana.
Ralph Ellis came to California in the gold mining days and located at
Downieville, Sierra County, where he was agent for Wilson and Evarts, who
conducted a bank there. Gold dust was
then used to a great extent as a medium of exchange, and Mr. Ellis used to
carry it across the country to Marysville, making frequent trips through this
wild, unsettled district. He was for
some time county clerk of Sierra County and on removing to Napa County held the
office of sheriff there from 1865 to 1870.
He also farmed in that county and built and operated the first
grist-mill in the state at St. Helena.
In 1870 he came to San Joaquin County and for seven years farmed south of
Stockton, going then to Lodi, where he ran a flour mill. He sold this in 1881 and established the
“Lodi Sentinel,” a weekly newspaper, displaying characteristic versatility and
initiative in taking up this entirely new line of endeavor. Later he turned this paper over to his son
Frank, and with another son, W. R. Ellis, went to Woodland and bought the “Woodland
Mail.” He was a charter member of the
Lodi Lodge of Masons, and was its first master.
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Ellis were the parents of five children: W. R. Ellis, of Sacramento, former secretary
of the California State Highway Commission; Frank, of Stockton; Henry F., of
Lodi; Mrs. Freeman B. Mills; and Mrs. Margaret E. Porter.
Henry F. Ellis was fourteen years
old when the family came to Lodi, and he was educated in the public schools and
at Woodbridge Academy. He entered
newspaper work with his father on the “Lodi Sentinel,” becoming its editor, and
later went to Woodland, where he was city editor of the “Woodland Mail,”
spending ten years there. In 1909 he
gave up newspaper work and became local agent at Lodi for the California Fruit
Exchange, a position he held for twelve years.
In 1904 Mr. Ellis represented San Joaquin County at the St. Louis
Exposition, having an attractive exhibit in the Agricultural Building, and he
brought back fifteen prizes.
In January, 1918, Mr. Ellis became
district manager for the Stewart Fruit Company, this being one of the largest
concerns in this line in the state, with shipping and packing houses all over
California. They ship strictly on a
commission basis, and in 1920 sent out 410 cars of deciduous fruits and grapes
from Lodi. About six years ago Mr. Ellis
bought an eighty-acre vineyard for $20,000, and improved it, putting in a
pumping plant; and at the end of four years he sold it for $64,000. In 1909 he purchased sixty acres of raw land,
planted part of it to Tokay grapes, and later set out the remainder to
prunes. In 1920 the grapes produced six
tons to the acre, and he has refused $2,000 an acre for the property.
Mr. Ellis was married on August 11,
1887, to Miss Lochie Green, a native daughter of San
Joaquin County and a member of an old pioneer family. Two daughters have been born to them: Carrie E., a graduate of the Lodi high
school, the San Jose Normal and the University of California, is the teacher of
domestic science in the Lodi high school; Frances M. graduated at the Lodi high
school and the San Jose State Normal, and teaches in the Lodi grammar
school. Prominent in educational
affairs, for ten years Mr. Ellis served as trustee of the Lodi Union High
School and of the Lodi grammar school. A
Republican in politics all his life, he is now city recorder of Lodi; and he is
also a member of the board of trustees of the Lodi Public Library. During the World War he took an active part
in all the Government programs, and was secretary of the Lodi Liberty
League. He became a charter member of
Lodi Parlor No. 18, N. S. G. W., when he was only eighteen; and he and George
E. Lawrence are now the only living charter members of the lodge. Well-known in Masonic circles, he is a member
of Lodi Lodge No. 256, F. & A. M.; Stockton Commandery, K. T.; and Islam
Temple, of San Francisco.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
915. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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