San
Joaquin County
Biographies
GUSTAVE A. GERLACH
An active participant in the
business affairs of Lodi is found in Gustave A. Gerlach, the vice-president and
part-owner of the Henderson Hardware Company.
He was born at the mining camp known in early days as French Gulch,
located about three miles from Murphys, Calaveras County, California, on June
7, 1864, a son of Gustave A. and Christina (Gunther) Gerlach, natives of
Prussia and Bingen, Bavaria, respectively.
The father arrived in California in 1850, coming via Panama, and settled
at Vallicita, California, where he engaged in mining. There he married Miss Gunther, who had made
the trip to California via Panama in 1852.
For several years he was in the bakery business at Angels Camp and
Vallicita. The family came to Stockton
in 1877, where the father was employed with the Simpson & Gray Lumber
Company until he purchased a ranch eight miles from the city on the Linden
Road, after which he engaged in viticulture until his death in 1896, aged
seventy years. The mother passed away in
1899, at the age of seventy-one years.
There were seven children in the family.
Louis and Julius are deceased; Lena, Mrs. J. M. Harry, resides in
Stockton; Emma died at the age of seven years; Gustave A. is the subject of
this sketch; Fred W. died at the age of fifty-two years; and Amelia is the wife
of Dr. C. R. Harry, and resides in Stockton.
Gustave A. Gerlach began his
education in the grammar schools of Angels Camp and completed it at the
Washington School in Stockton. His
school days were over at the age of fifteen, when he began to make his own
living, at first working at anything he could get to do, until he was
sixteen. Then he was apprenticed to
learn the tinsmith trade in Stockton with Robert Rowe, at the corner of Main
and Sutter streets. After completing his
apprenticeship of four years he worked as a journeyman for Mr. Rowe another
four years, and during this time learned the plumbing trade as well as the
trade of sheet metal worker. After this
he worked for John Jackson for eight years, until 1896, when he located in
Lodi. Here he entered the employ of
Henderson Bros. Co., who had taken over the hardware business of John Collins;
and Mr. Gerlach took charge of the sheet metal and plumbing department for the
company and has continued in that capacity ever since. When Henderson Bros. Co. was incorporated in
1906, Mr. Gerlach was solicited to become a member of the corporation. He bought an interest and became a director,
still continuing in the same capacity.
In 1909 W. A. Spooner and E. G. Steacy
purchased the interest of the Henderson brothers, and then Mr. Gerlach was
elected vice-president of the company.
Their location is at 13 and 15 North Sacramento Street. They deal in all kinds of hardware and are
equipped to do sheet metal, plumbing, and steam fitting work of all kinds,
employing twenty-one men in shop and store work. Mr. Gerlach is a stockholder in the Lodi
Investment Company that built the Lodi Hotel and Lodi Theater.
On August 6, 1885, in Stockton, Mr.
Gerlach was married to Miss Kathryn Morton, a native of that city, and daughter
of Freeman and Kathryn (Brown) Morton, the former a native of New York and the
latter of Germany. The mother was eight
years old when she came to America with her parents, and grew to young
womanhood in New York, where she met and married Freeman Morton. In 1847 the father came to California as a
member of a New York regiment under Colonel Stevenson, to serve in California
during the Mexican War. With his wife
and one daughter he came around Cape Horn landing at Monterey, and served with
the regiment as a sharpshooter until the close of the war. He was honored by being presented with a
silver-mounted rifle. After his
discharge he mined for a time at Mokelumne Hill, after which he returned to
Stockton and engaged in the draying business until his death in 1868. His widow survived him until 1900, passing
away at the age of seventy-three. This worthy pioneer couple were the parents of eleven
children: Elizabeth, Samuel, Harriet,
John, Mary and Tillie (twins), Cornelia, Emma and Alice (twins), Louis, and
Kathryn (Mrs. Gerlach). Mrs. Gerlach was
born, reared and married, and her two children were born in the same house in
Stockton.
Mr. and Mrs. Gerlach had two
children: Christine, a graduate of Chico
Normal, who is teaching in Stockton; and Gustave A., Jr., who met a tragic
death by drowning at the age of twenty-three.
With two companions he was in a rowboat on the Mokelumne River just
below the Woodbridge dam, when one of the company fell
overboard. The river was at a high water
mark in flood season; and when Gustave A., Jr., endeavored to save his
companion, both were drowned, and it was several hours before their bodies were
rescued from a whirlpool in the river bottom.
Mr. Gerlach was a charter member of
the Lodi volunteer fire department, and has served in various offices. In 1913 he was elected president of the
department and he has been retained in that position ever since. He is prominent in fraternal circles, having
been made a Mason in Lodi Lodge No. 256, F. & A. M.; and he is a member of
Lodi Chapter, O. E. S. He is past
chancellor of the Knights of Pythias Lodge in Lodi; a member and past president
of the Eagles, of Lodi; and a member of Lodi Parlor, N. S. G. W., and Stockton
Lodge No. 218, B. P. O. E. Mrs. Gerlach
is a member of Lodi Chapter No. 150, O. E. S.; past president of Ivy Parlor, N.
D. G. W., and a member of the Woman’s Club and the Congregational Church in
Lodi. Mr. Gerlach has served as a school
trustee of the Salem district. He votes
with the Democratic Party and keeps well informed on the issues of the
day. His success in business is well-merited,
and has served as a source of encouragement and inspiration to others. His life has been characterized by unflagging
industry, and it is upon this foundation that he has builded his present
prosperity.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
904-907. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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