San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES W. FORBES
Prominent among the most
highly-esteemed citizens of Manteca may well be numbered C. W. Forbes, who has
been a popular resident of the live town since October, 1918, having there,
with M. A. Forbes, built up the extensive corporation called the Manteca
Telephone and Telegraph Company. Mr.
Forbes was born on a farm in Wayne County, New York, in 1871, and as a boy
enjoyed the advantages of a good common-school education. When sixteen years of age he entered the
employ of the Bell Telephone Company of New York State, after which he
gradually worked up from lineman to be general manager of a private telegraph
and telephone company at Chicago.
In 1909 he went into Mexico, to the
State of Sonora, where he pioneered in the development of the Sonora Telephone
Company with the headquarters at Hermosillo; and in the venture Mrs. Forbes was
a partner throughout the nine years required for expanding the extensive
business; and during their stay there they became intimately and pleasantly
associated with prominent Mexican families, including that of the present
President Obregon. Before coming to
California, however, Mr. Forbes sold his entire interest, on account of the
unsettled state of affairs there.
In 1916 he reached the Golden State,
and since that time he has built up a business consisting of five hundred and
thirty phones within a radius of three miles from Manteca to a territory fully
seven miles in length with a steady growth from six suburban lines in 1918 to
twenty-two lines in 1922, while the long-distance service has more than tripled
in this period. From an investment of
$6,000, the volume of business has so increased as to call for an investment of
some $40,000, which speaks for itself.
Mr. Forbes is a live wire in the
Chamber of Commerce, and equally so in the newly-organized Lions Club, of which
he is chairman of the executive committee.
He is also a most welcome member of the Masonic lodges.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1573-1574. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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