San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES W. GAWNE
A valuable grain farm of 800 acres,
located some thirteen miles southeast of Stockton on the Mariposa Road is the
property of Charles W. Gawne, who has made his residence in San Francisco for
the past forty years and for the past twenty-five years
has been active in the import and export business there. He now makes his home at 1224 Hyde Street,
and is living retired from active business cares. He is a native Californian, having been at
Shasta, March 6, 1860, a son of John and Mercer (Burns) Gawne, California
pioneers of 1850. John Gawne was born on
the Isle of Man, England, and was but a lad when he came to New York. He was energetic and enterprising and got
along well in the new country. In young
manhood he was married to a native daughter of White Plains, New York; and soon
thereafter the young couple came to California and settled in Shasta County,
where the wife passed away in 1865, survived by three children, of whom Charles
W. Gawne is the eldest, and the only survivor.
For many years John Gawne conducted a flour mill in Shasta and supplied
the mines in that vicinity. In the early
seventies he removed to Stockton and in partnership with Mr. Moore established
the Stockton Lumber Yards, which he conducted for fifteen years. He also established the Stockton Navigation
Company, and owned and operated the first large river powerboats; he also owned
the Stockton Warehouse Company, and by his enterprise and good management
acquired large tracts of land, owning at the time of his death 2,200 acres of
choice wheat land thirteen miles southeast of Stockton on the Mariposa
Road. John Gawne always stood for
progress and improvement, and was one of the representative men of the
county. After his death 1,400 acres of
his real estate in San Joaquin County was sold to the Stockton Improvement
Company; the balance of 800 acres is still in the possession of our subject,
who leases it from year to year for the purpose of raising grain.
Charles W. Gawne received a fine
education, including a business course, at Eastman’s College in Poughkeepsie,
New York. In 1877 he entered the employ
of the Moore & Gawne Lumber Yards, where he remained for two years, and at
the same time managed his father’s warehouse.
In 1882 he removed to San Francisco, where he has since resided and for
the past twenty-five years has been in the import and export business with
marked success.
The marriage of Mr. Gawne occurred
in Oregon in 1885, uniting him with A. C. Young, a daughter of Robert and
Teresa Young, pioneers of San Joaquin County.
Two children have been born to Mrs. and Mrs. Gawne. Deslie, a graduate
of the University of California, class of 1916, is now head of the department
of Bacteriology in the Zion Hospital, San Francisco. Beatrice, also a graduate of the University
of California, class of 1916, is librarian at Salinas, California. During the World War Mr. Gawne returned to
Stockton and personally conducted his large wheat ranch, raising large crops
which he disposed of to the Government.
He is widely and favorably known in San Joaquin County.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1556. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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