San
Joaquin County
Biographies
MORRIS HENRY GRATTAN
Among the prominent citizens and
leading farmers of San Joaquin County is Morris Henry Grattan, who is also a
native of the county, where he has lived all his life and has witnessed the
development and improvement from a wild frontier region to one of the best
districts of the great state of California.
Henry Grattan, as he is best known to his friends, devotes his ranch of
160 acres principally to grain farming.
Born on his father’s ranch five miles north of Stockton on the Cherokee
Lane Road, April 12, 1857, he is a son of John and Sarah Jane (Davis)
Grattan. John Grattan was born in
Albany, New York, July 4, 1827, and when a mere child his parents removed to
Pennsylvania, where he was reared. When eighteen years of age he went to New York City staying there
about six months. In the fall of
1846 he made another trip there and entered the office of his brother
Christopher, who afterwards was a prominent physician and surgeon of Stockton.
On March 31, 1849, John Grattan left
New York City in company with his brother, Dr. C. Grattan, and his wife, on the
sailer Canton, which rounded Cape Horn and reached
San Francisco October 5 of that year. He
engaged in mining for awhile, then helped his brother
in the private hospital which he had established in Stockton; then in 1855
turned his attention to farming, buying 160 acres on Cherokee Lane Road, six
miles from Stockton, where he lived until his death. From 1861 to the day of his death, John
Grattan was a staunch Republican; prior to that he had been a Democrat in
national politics. The only public
office he ever accepted was that of inspector of customs from 1872 to
1876. On October 19, 1854, he was
married to Miss Sarah Jane Davis, a native of Missouri, daughter of Judge
Anderson Davis, a pioneer of San Joaquin County, who crossed the plains with
ox-teams in 1852. They were the parents
of six children, of whom Morris Henry is the only one now living. During the dry season of 1864 when everything
dried up, Mr. Grattan, together with C. M. Weber and others, commenced to try
to get water from the Calaveras River by making ditches through to his place,
obtaining the right of way. The first
water was turned on Grattan’s place and this was the commencement of the
irrigation system in this county. He
might be called the father of the gravel roads, for he took the initiatory
steps toward their construction. He was
made a member of both the odd Fellows and Masonic orders in Stockton. He lost his wife in 1896, aged fifty-six
years. He spent his last years with his
son Henry, and on January 17, 1917, he passed to his reward, aged ninety years
and six months.
Reared in San Joaquin County, Henry
Grattan received his education in the schools of his neighborhood and in the
Stockton high school, and since his school days were over has led an active and
profitable career in this section of the state.
For two years he was a clerk in the well-known grocery establishment of Southworth & Grattan, a firm that did a large business
some years ago in Stockton. In the fall
of 1884 he went to Stanislaus County and leased the Dr. Grattan grain ranch of
1,600 acres near Hickman, where he farmed for eighteen years. His farm work was done by four ten-mule teams
and his harvester required a thirty-six mule team. In 1902 he purchased his present ranch of 160
acres north of Stockton on West Lane, which is principally devoted to grain raising, although he has a five-acre Tokay vineyard on the
place.
On New Year’s Day, 1890, in
Stockton, Mr. Grattan was married to Miss Edith L. Brownell, born in San
Rafael, California, a daughter of Fred and Sarah Brownell, early settlers of
California. Fred Brownell was a truck
farmer on Roberts Island and he and his wife were the parents of a large
family. Mr. and Mrs. Grattan have three
children: Roland H., Mrs. Edith L.
Foster, and Beulah M. Mr. Grattan is a
staunch supporter of the public school system and served as a member of the
board of trustees of Lincoln school district.
He is a Republican in politics and is a member of the Charity Lodge No.
6, I. O. O. F., in Stockton.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
899-900. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases