San
Joaquin County
Biographies
MRS. HANNAH STURTEVANT GEFFROY
Numbered among the honored pioneers
of San Joaquin County is Mrs. Hannah Sturtevant Geffroy, who came to California
via the Panama route in 1864 and since 1875 has been a continuous resident of
the county. She has witnessed the growth
and development of the Lodi section of the county from a wilderness of
underbrush and timber to the present high state of cultivation and
prosperity. Mrs. Geffroy is a native
daughter of New England, her birth occurring in North Abington, Massachusetts,
December 12, 1849, a daughter of George and Susannah (Shaw) Hammond. The Hammond family dates back to 1634, when
the first of the name came to American on the ship Griffin and from Benjamin
Hammond are descended men and women prominent and influential in the early days
of Massachusetts. There were eight
children in the family: Delia, Mrs. D.
J. Locke, residing in Lockeford; Susan, Mrs. George Locke, deceased; Roland,
deceased; Dr. Josiah Hammond of Butte, Montana; Horace, deceased; Mrs. Geffroy,
the subject of this sketch; Clara, deceased; John C. Hammond of Lockeford. The entire family of
children were born in the same house in North Abington,
Massachusetts. The paternal grandmother,
Hannah Sturtevant, after whom our subject was named, lived to be ninety-one years
old, while the father of our subject lived to be almost ninety years old and
the mother died at the age of sixty-five.
The family came to California at different times, then
the father returned to the Massachusetts home and brought the remaining three
children to California in 1864 via Panama.
The ship which took them to Panama was convoyed against attack from the
rebel naval vessels. The father leased
the Staples ranch at Lockeford, where he farmed for a number of years.
On March 17, 1867, on the Staples
ranch near Lockeford, in a house that was brought around the Horn in sections,
occurred the marriage of Miss Hannah Sturtevant Hammond and Thomas Bush
Geffroy, born April 4, 1832, in Newport, Rhode Island. His father passed away when he was eight
years old. Mr. Geffroy was trained for
West Point and received his appointment, but it was at the time of the great
gold excitement so instead he joined a party of seven and bought and stocked a
vessel to come to California around the Horn and arrived in San Francisco in
1849, where the party disposed of the vessel and went to the mines. However, Mr. Geffroy’s
success in the mining venture lasted but a short time, then he went to Monterey
County, where he became prominent in the political circles of the county and
was a member of the first legislature of California that convened at San Jose
and Mrs. Geffroy has preserved the manuscripts of his work in that body. For many years Mr. Geffroy was county clerk
of Monterey County; he also served as deputy sheriff of the county and was
translator in the courts of the county, translating the grants from French and
Spanish to the English language. His
health gave away and he was forced to seek an outdoor life and engaged in the
sock business, first in Monterey County, then in San Joaquin County, where he
met Miss Hammond. The family resided in
the vicinity of Lockeford for a few years, where Mr. Geffroy rented railroad
land for stockraising and where their three oldest children were born; then the
family removed to Oakland, and made their home for five years; then they moved
back to San Joaquin County, in 1875, where they have continuously resided. Mr. Geffroy purchased a fifteen-acre ranch
one-half mile west of Lodi on the Sargent Road, where he engaged in farming for
thirty-two years, or until his death on July 7, 1907. Mr. and Mrs. Geffroy were the parents of
eight children: Mabel, Mrs. C. F. Walker
of Yreka, California, has one daughter, Mrs. Gertrude Otis of Oakland, and she
has three children: Geraldine, Wilbur,
and Glen; Carrie, Mrs. E. J. Thomas, also of Oakland; Bertha, Mrs. Leslie Dye,
resides in Lodi and has three children:
Charles, Edna, and Eleanor; Arthur died in 1877, aged three years;
Susie, Mrs. W. W. Hubbard of Stockton, has two children: Wilma and Wayne; Amos died at birth, and his
twin Amy, is Mrs. Emmitt Gordon, who resides in Acampo and has five
children: Dorothy, Kenneth, Neil, Joyce
and Barbara; Ralph Geffroy resides in New York.
Since the death of her husband Mrs. Geffroy has made her home in Lodi at
221 West Elm Street, and she is an esteemed member of the Congregational Church
in Lodi and is the oldest in membership of that organization.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
363-364. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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