San
Joaquin County
Biographies
PAUL WILLIAM HARDER
A practical and scientific rancher,
who draws upon his own valuable experience, and who has the confidence of his
associates, because of his conservatively progressive methods, is Paul William
Harder. He was born in Germany on
November 7, 1865, and when six years old accompanied his parents, John and
Magdalena M. (Peters) Harder to America, arriving in July of 1873; the
following September his father, John Harder, passed away. The mother, with three sons, of which our
subject is the eldest, the second being August, now residing near Byron, and
Richard, who died en route to the Klondike on March 8, 1896, resided in San
Joaquin County until 1883, when she removed to Marsh Creek, and in October,
1907, she settled in Fruitvale, California, where she passed away on March 16,
1912. When Paul William reached the age
of fourteen he went to work on the M. Lammers ranch
for ten dollars per month and was thus occupied until he started for himself;
in 1888 he leased a part of the ranch belonging to Philip Fabian near Tracy,
paying for same with a portion of the money from the wheat crop.
On November 23, 1889, Mr. Harder was
united in marriage with Miss Minnie Collins, the youngest daughter of the late
John W. and Anna (Pruser) Collins. Mrs. Collins was a native of Germany, born at
Elmshorn, and was a resident of California for about
forty years. William Pruser,
a brother, John Collins, a son, and two daughters, Mrs. Annie Linnie and Mrs. Harder survive her. Mr. Collins passed away in 1876. Mr. and Mrs. Harder are the parents of two
children: Anna M. is the wife of Austin
K. Felt, a prominent merchant of Sacramento; Paul W., Jr., enlisted in the U.
S. Marine Corps on June 4, 1917, as commander’s orderly and served at
Bremerton, Washington, for seven months, receiving his discharge in 1919. He was married on November 2, 1918, at
Seattle, Washington, to Miss Lucile F. Baker, and they now reside in
Tracy. Since 1915, Mr. Harder has farmed
his present home place; the Western Pacific Railroad has a right-of-way through
a portion of it and the shipping point called Belpico
affords a convenient loading station for his produce. Mr. Harder is a member of the local Farm
Bureau and the Federation of American Farmers.
At Stockton in 1883 he received his U. S. citizenship papers and has
been a most loyal supporter of the principles of the Republican Party ever
since. Mr. Harder and his family are
members of the Lutheran Church of Tracy.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
812. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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