San
Joaquin County
Biographies
EDWARD L. GNEKOW
A naturally capable plumber whose
years of practical, invaluable experience now placed at the service of all of
his patrons, have given him a leading position in Stockton among the best craftsmen
in his line anywhere in California, is Edward L. Gnekow, whose fine plumbing
establishment at 647 East Main Street, is widely and well known to the citizens
of San Joaquin County. He was born at
Stockton, on September 15, 1862, the son of Rudolph and Christiana (Bollinger)
Gnekow.
He attended the local schools, after
which he was apprenticed to learn the baker’s trade. He did not like his first choice, so he took
up the plumbing trade instead. He
entered the service of Robert Rowe in 1880, remaining until 1883; and then for
the next two years he was with Fred Ruhl, and after that, for a couple of
years, with the Stockton City Laundry.
On September 1, 1886, he formed a partnership in plumbing with George F.
Schuler, the firm becoming known as Gnekow & Schuler; and this partnership
was continued during three years until May, 1889.
From that date, Mr. Gnekow has
continued business for himself; and he not only is the oldest living master
plumbing contractor in the four lines of plumbing, sheet metal work, heating
and electrical contracting in Stockton, but he is favored with the largest
trade in those lines, given to anyone in the city. He has done plumbing, electrical and contract
work in nearly all of the school buildings erected in Stockton during the past
ten years; among these are the fine Lincoln, Jackson, Washington, North Fair
Oaks and New High schools; and he has also for years done much of the same kind
of work in many of the best residences in Stockton, and in such notable
structures as the Home Apartments, the Taft Hotel, the Bronx Hotel, the Hotel
Sutter, the Sanguinetti Block, the Cassinelli three-story block, at Lafayette
and El Dorado streets, the new buildings at the San Joaquin Agricultural Park,
the Japanese Hotel, on South El Dorado Street, and the Y. M. C. A. Building and
the New York Hotel. In addition, he was
called upon to do much of the expert work for the heating plant of the
Pittsburg School, and also the Manteca and the Angels Camp schools, the new
theater in Pittsburg, and the electrical work for the Merced Theater. In 1893 he did the plumbing and sheet-metal
work on the Masonic Temple at Redding, in Shasta County, the heating, plumbing
and sheet-metal work in the Bank of Lodi, the Catholic Church at Lodi, and
three business blocks for J. Schmidt at Tracy.
In 1893 when natural gas was struck
in Stockton, and the Citizens Gas Company was formed, Mr. Gnekow sold the first
cast-iron gas-range to consumers offered by anyone in Stockton—the “Success and
Perfect Range,” of which his sales were large.
At Stockton, on March 13, 1888, Mr.
Gnekow was married to Miss Marion Tinkham, a native of Stockton; and their
union was blessed with the birth of one son, Lester E., who is a partner with
his father and looks after the electrical department of the ever-expanding
establishment. In September of 1883 Mr.
Gnekow joined Stockton Lodge, No. 11, I. O. O. F., and Parker Encampment, No.
3, in which he progressed through all the chairs. He was the youngest noble grand in the lodge
to hold that office, and the youngest chief patriarch of the Encampment. He was also the youngest district deputy of
this district, which includes Stockton, Linden, Farmington and Tracy; and he
was the last and youngest male district deputy to install the Rebekah
Lodge. His work there was considered
about as perfect as mortals may make it, and he took great pride in his
fraternal associations and duties. He
had passed through all the chairs, becoming district deputy at the age of
twenty-six years.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1095-1096. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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