San
Joaquin County
Biographies
STOCKTON PLUMBING SUPPLY COMPANY
(EDWIN H. GROGAN & LESTER A. ALLING)
One of the leading and enterprising
establishments that is helping to make industrial, building and development
history for central California, is the Stockton Plumbing Supply Company, 327
East Miner Avenue, operated by men thoroughly familiar with the territory in
which they do business. This company
does general contracting in plumbing, heating and sheet metal lines, and
install plumbing and heating equipment in business houses, office buildings,
school and educational institutions, homes, etc., anywhere in central
California. Many well known buildings in
Stockton and vicinity are evidence of the splendid work of this company, who
give careful attention to all specifications and details. Among some of the most important contracts
completed by the company are the following:
Lodi Union High School, Pacific Telephone Company Building, Tracy
grammar school, Escalon grammar school, Roosevelt grammar school, Grant school,
El Dorado school, High School auditorium, the last four being in Stockton. The apartment house on California and
Lafayette streets, Gordella Building, the White
Hotel, and many other buildings, were contracted by them.
The senior partner of the Stockton Plumbing
Supply Company, Edwin H. Grogan, was born in Trinidad, Colorado, February 29,
1888, and received his preliminary education in his native city. In 1904, at the age of sixteen, he came to
California and located in Stockton and finished his education at the Stockton
Business College; then learned the plumber’s and sheet metal worker’s trade
with E. A. Whale, who had established his business thirty years ago. Mr. Grogan worked at his trade in the
plumbing shops of Stockton until 1915, when he took over the mechanical
department of E. A. Whale and worked in this capacity until January 1, 1919,
when in partnership with Lester A. Alling, another
employee of the same company, he purchased the above-named business and
established the Stockton Plumbing Supply Company.
The marriage of Mr. Grogan united him
with Miss Emma Hansen, a native daughter of California, born in Stockton, a
daughter of a pioneer family. They are
the parents of two children, Edwin H., Jr., and Virginia. Fraternally Mr. Grogan is a member of the Red
Men.
Lester A. Alling,
the junior member of the firm, is descended from an old pioneer family of
California, and was born on his father’s ranch eight miles east of Stockton,
June 23, 1896, a son of Lucius E. and Kate (Utt) Alling, both natives of California and both living. He was educated in the public schools of the
country district and later took a business course at Heald’s Business College
in Stockton. In 1914 he entered the
employ of E. A. Whale and became manager of the company and was so employed for
three years. When the recent war broke
out he enlisted in the navy as a seaman in the naval reserve and trained at San
Pedro, Pelham Bay Park, New York, and at the rifle range in the Catskill Mountains,
New York. He became attached to the mine
sweeping division, Tompkinsville, New York, on board the U. S. S. Ripple, and
saw service in eastern waters; these mine sweepers sailed ahead of the
transports keeping the sea clear of mines and other disturbing elements. The marriage of Mr. Alling
occurred in Stockton April 7, 1921, uniting him with Miss Maude Hoffman, who
was born at Linden, this county. Mr. Alling is a member of Karl Ross Post, American Legion.
Wholesale and
retail dealers in plumbing merchandise, the company carries on display in the
tastefully arranged show rooms a large and modern line of accessories and
employs only the most capable and experienced men to take charge of the
installation work. No order is too large
for them to handle, and the same careful attention is given large and small
contracts, and they have one of the most complete establishments of the kind in
the San Joaquin Valley. As a company
they are members of the Stockton Chamber of Commerce, the Builders’ Exchange
and the Master Plumbers’ Association, E. H. Grogan being president of the
latter.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1064-1069. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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