San
Joaquin County
Biographies
MATTHEW D. FOCACCI
An enterprising and thoroughly
progressive businessman of Lodi, who has done much to place and keep his town
in the front rank of San Joaquin County cities, is Matthew D. Focacci, the
president of the Lodi Shoe Store, Inc., at 10 West Pine Street. He was born here on December 16, 1883,
although his parents, John and Maria Focacci, were both natives of Italy. His father came to Lodi in early days, and
for some time was in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company; and
he died in 1896; leaving an unblemished reputation as an honest and
intelligently industrious man. Mrs.
Focacci is still living, the mother of six children. The eldest is Mrs. Columbia Denevi, John is the second; our subject was the third, and
the others are Joseph, Louis and Charles.
Matthew attended the school at
Salem, but when Mr. Focacci died, and his widow bought twenty-one acres of raw
land, a part of the John Hutchins ranch, the present site of the Emerson
School, for $110 per acre, he assisted his mother to improve the place. They put in water, planted a vineyard, and
also went in for an orchard and the growing of vegetables; and at the end of
the year they were able to sell the property at $700 per acre. This property, since subdivided, is known as
the Schroeder Tract, and lots are sold there at as high a figure as $1,200
each, an interesting contrast to the time when the Focacci’s
were farming the place, and packed their grapes, which they sold for twenty
cents a crate, under the trees. They
also leased a part of the Girard Tract for farming purposes.
After the ranch was sold, Mr.
Focacci decided to enter the mercantile field, so he accepted a position with
J. P. Callahan, who conducted a small shoe store on North School Street. There he gained a thorough knowledge of the
shoe business, and he then bought out Mr. Callahan, and later with Mr. W. H.
Thompson he incorporated the Lodi Shoe Store.
In 1914 they removed to their present place of business in the Lodi
National Bank Building, where they carry only the highest quality of stock, and
have built up a very profitable trade.
Mr. Focacci is a graduate of the American School of Practipedics,
at Chicago, where he completed a two-year course in 1918; and he has found that
his actual experience, as well as his reputation for expert training in
shoe-fitting and all that pertains to the foot specialist, has been of great
assistance to him. This art of expert
shoe-fitting has been in vogue in the finest shops in the east for some years,
and Mr. Focacci has the honor of being one of the first to introduce it into
California.
At Lodi Mr. Focacci was married to
Miss Jennie Beronio, also a native of the town of
Lodi; and they have one son, Leslie D. Focacci, who is now two years old. Mr. Focacci is a popular member of Lodge No. 18
of the Eagles, Lodge No. 848 of the Woodmen of the World, and also of the Lodi
Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1444. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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