San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WILLIAM F. GARVEY
Among the well-known citizens of San
Joaquin County is William F. Garvey, a representative agriculturist who has
served as deputy constable of Oneil Township. He owns a residence at 2602 East Main Street
and engages in general farming on a tract of land in East Stockton. He was born August 12, 1859 at Peoria,
Illinois, the eldest son of Miles Garvey, a native of County Cavan, Ireland, who was eighteen years old when he came to
America. He was a skilled machinist and
soon found employment on the Illinois Central Railroad, where he attracted the
attention of Captain Moss, a railroad contractor and builder at Peoria, who was
also the owner of the Moss & Bradley Distillery and a prominent businessman
of Peoria. In 1861 Miles Garvey drove a
team across the plains to California for Captain Moss, arriving in Stockton in
August of the same year. He spent five
years as a prospector in the southern mines, then
returned east, arriving in Peoria late in 1866.
The following spring he moved his family to Omaha, Nebraska, and there
conducted an express and transfer business for five years; then in 1871 the
family removed to St. Paul, Kansas, where Mr. Garvey engaged in farming until
1876. In 1879 Miles Garvey brought his
family to California, arriving in Stockton on April 25 of that year; for two
years he farmed the Moss ranch two miles south of Stockton and then moved to the
Lathrop section of the county, where he and his sons farmed 1500 acres to grain
and were unusually successful in this undertaking. Miles Garvey was a Democrat in politics, a
kind friend and loving father. He passed
away in Stockton in 1897, his wife surviving him one year, passing away at the
Waverley Station ranch near Bellota in 1898, aged
eighty-four.
On October 7, 1884, William F.
Garvey was married to Miss Clara Moriarty, of St. Paul, Kansas, and eight
children have been born to this worthy couple:
Margaret, died when eight years old; Clara is the wife of L. D.
Witherspoon of San Francisco; William, Jr., is employed by G. Lindauer of San Francisco; John L. is traveling salesman
for the Moline Plow Company and lives at Sacramento; Irene died when seven
years old; Edward, an automobile machinist, resides at Stockton; he was
overseas in the late war in the aviation service; Elodie
married Joseph Bruhl and resides in Stockton; Generose is the wife of Hubert Rond
of Lodi, California. Sixteen years ago
Mr. Garvey bought a tract of land in East Stockton, where he owns his residence
and seven lots at the present time and engages in general farming. Mr. Garvey was, for many years, a watchman
for the Harris Harvester Company and Richmond-Chase Packing Company and at the
same time was deputy constable. In
politics, Mr. Garvey votes with the Democratic Party and for the past twenty
has been affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
719. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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