San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES P. FENLEY
Among the younger generation of
business men in Stockton is Charles P. Fenley, the
proprietor of an electrical store, located at 29 North Sutter Street, where he
carries a full line of electrical supplies and fixtures of all kinds; he also
does contracting in all branches of electrical work. He was born in the rural district of Jackson
County, Missouri, on March 15, 1894.
When he was six years old the family moved to Page County, Iowa, and
settled on the old home place of his paternal grandfather. What schooling Charles P. received was in the
district schools and when a small lad he began to work as a farm hand; when he
was nine years old he milked twelve cows daily and when he was ten years old he
followed a plow and at fourteen he did a man’s work in the hay field. His family then moved to Fort Morgan,
Colorado, where they raised grain; later they removed to Kimball, Nebraska, and
there the father engaged in the livery stable business. It
was in Kimball that our subject gained his first lessons in the electrical
business, starting as a lineman with a ground gang with the Bell Telephone
Company, which was laying a transcontinental line from Nebraska to Wyoming. During 1912 his family removed to California
and settled in Stockton and during the same year our subject joined them; later
he went to Oakland, and found employment with the Union Iron Works in the
electrical bureau of the marine department; he then was employed by the S. &
O. Terminal Railroad in Oakland in the electrical department; then went to
Modesto and worked for the electrical contractor Jack Nightingale, and during
his three years’ stay gained valuable experience in his line; he also spent
some time in Arizona and Texas following his trade. On June 20, 1920, he purchased the old
established business of Gould & Johns at 119 South California Street,
Stockton, and built up a good business until it outgrew the quarters, when he removed
to a new building at 129 North Sutter Street.
Mr. Fenley’s
marriage united him with Miss Mary Weber, a native of Fresno, California. She is a fine businesswoman and has been the
manager of the Stockton branch of Reich & Liever
of San Francisco for the past five years; and for eight years she was
associated with the Wonder store of Stockton.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Fenley are held in high
esteem in the community and are doing their share toward the progress and
upbuilding of the locality they have selected for their permanent home.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1572-1573. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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