San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES FREDERICKSON
An enterprising, successful firm,
which enjoys the reputation of being the leaders in their line of work, is that
of Frederickson Brothers, the cement and brick contractors of Stockton, so worthily
represented by Charles Frederickson, a native of northern Sweden, where he was
born on January 28, 1886. He was
apprenticed for a couple of years at the cementer-workers’ trade in his native
land, and there as a mere boy, learned the trade, and learned it
thoroughly. The work was then all done
by hand, and hard cobblestones were used for thirty per cent of the body of the
mixture, so that whoever worked at the trade there at that time had to work
very hard.
In 1905 Mr. Frederickson came out to
the United States and located at Stephenson, Michigan, where he worked at his
trade during the summer, and then went into the woods in winter, to work at the
getting out of lumber. He attended the
preparatory school of the college at Big Rapids, Michigan, and learned there
the English language; and he was fortunate in being a student under President
F. F. Farris, who is now serving his second term as governor of Michigan. In 1908 he came out to California to look
around, and when he had canvassed the local situation, and had once seen Lodi,
he decided to settle there, at least for awhile. He worked with his brother Andrew, who had
come from Sweden directly to California, and one of their first jobs was on the
winery at Elk Grove. They also put up a
cement block for Edward Brackenbaker in Lodi. Then they entered the business for
themselves, establishing the firm of Frederickson Brothers, cement and brick
contractors; and have done most of the large construction work in this
district. In Lodi, they erected a
concrete block of three stories for H. M. Madison, and then completed a $55,000
job for the city of Lodi. Then they went
to the State of Washington, where they remained for thirteen months, and worked
as far north as British Columbia. On
their return to California, they laid miles of sidewalks and curbs in Fresno,
built at Lodi a garage for Fred Cary, and a structure for the Sacramento Gas
Company. Frederickson Brothers then made
their headquarters in Stockton, where they laid the foundations for the Jefferson,
North, El Dorado and Lincoln Street schools, and an addition to the Stockton
high school, concrete and brick work on the high school auditorium; and they
also did the concrete and brick work for the McKinley and Fair Oaks schools,
and the brick, concrete and tile work on the Roosevelt School. They also did work for the new buildings at
the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds; and they have done all the cement work in
the Wagner Leather Company buildings put up in recent years. They laid the concrete bridge on the Waterloo
Road for the county, and in 1921 they had the contract for the $90,000 concrete
work on the addition to the Fresno High School.
They completed the tile work in the new shed of the Anderson Fruit
Company at Lodi, and also a two-story brick block for Messrs. Graffique Bros.; and they erected a pumping plant at
Knights Landing, and an ornate school at Denair, Stanislaus County. All in all, Messrs. Frederickson Brothers
must be regarded as among the most progressive of industrial leaders hereabouts
in the building up of San Joaquin County.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1592. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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