San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JAMES STEVEN GERARD, JR.
Among the younger generation of
horticulturists in the San Joaquin Valley, few names are more prominently
associated with the agricultural development of the county than that of James
Steven Gerard, Jr., the owner of 170 acres of orchard and vineyard one and a
half miles west of Lodi on the Sacramento Highway. His fields and vineyards are indicative of
his careful supervision and progressive methods, and thus he is numbered among
the leading agriculturists and fruit-raisers of San Joaquin County. A native son of California, he was born at
San Francisco on September 24, 1893, a son of James Steven and Annie C. (Penny)
Gerard, natives of California and Boston, Massachusetts, respectively, and a
grandson of John H. and Caroline (Sterling) Gerard, natives of England, who
were pioneers of San Joaquin County, and are represented elsewhere in this
work.
James S. Gerard, Jr., began his
education in the old Mission Grammar School in San Francisco and then entered
the Wilmerding School of Mechanical Arts.
Then he took up the study of law at the St. Ignatius Law School and in
the offices of Morrison, Dunne & Brobeck of San
Francisco, but not being very much enthused over that study, gave it up. When he was seventeen years old the family
returned to Lodi and settled on the old Gerard home place. Upon the death of Grandmother Gerard, our
subject inherited 104 acres, a portion of the Gerard ranch. Twenty-five acres of this ranch was in vineyard
and the balance has been developed into an orchard of cherries, pears and
almonds. The entire ranch is piped for
irrigation with concrete pipe, the water being supplied by two pumps, one a
six-inch pump and the other a four-inch pump, driven by a fifteen horsepower
and seven horsepower motors. He has sold
thirty-four acres, retaining seventy acres.
In 1915, Mr. Gerard built a
comfortable bungalow home on this ranch, and on June 4 of the same year was
married to Miss Mildred Levisa Stannard,
a native of Lodi, California, and daughter of H. B. and May (Carleton) Stannard. Her
parents came to California some thirty years ago from La Crosse, Wisconsin,
where her father was a merchant. The
father passed away in Lodi, but the mother still resides there. Mrs. Gerard received her education in the
Lodi public schools of her native town of Lodi.
They are the parents of one daughter, Janet May. Within the last year, Mr. Gerard has purchased
100 acres in the Merced Irrigation District, which has been set to orchard and
vineyard. Mr. Gerard is a Republican in
politics, and fraternally is a member of Woodbridge Lodge No. 131, F. & A.
M., of which he is a past master. He is
also a member of Stockton Chapter No. 28, R. A. M.; Stockton Commandery No. 8,
K. T.; as well as Ben Ali Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in Sacramento;
and with his wife is a member of Woodbridge Chapter,
Order of the Eastern Star. Mr. Gerard is
past president of Lodi Parlor No. 18, N. S. G. W., and is a member of the Lions
Club, Mokelumne Club of Lodi, and the Woodbridge Gun Club.
Mr. Gerard entered the service of
his country, enlisting in the Navy in August of 1918, and was sent to Goat
Island, where he trained as an apprentice seaman for six months. Then he was sent to Harvard Radio School,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and attended three months. He was stationed at the Fire Island Radio
Station, New York, as an electrician’s mate, radio second class, remaining
there until he was returned to California and discharged at Goat Island in May,
1919. He is a member of Lodi Post No.
22, American Legion.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
939-940. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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