San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CAPTAIN JOHN HARKINS
San Joaquin County may boast of many
intrepid pioneers such as Captain John Harkins, the early commander of river
craft, whose work of developing the resources of the country justly entitles him
to lasting record and the esteem and good will of all who come after them. John Harkins was born in Ireland in 1838, and
when only fourteen years of age came on to America. He attended school at Dedham, Massachusetts,
and at the age of nineteen, commenced to follow the sea on sailing
vessels. He was thus exceptionally well
equipped to leave the more civilized east and try his fortune in the
half-primeval, unsettled west.
In 1859, impressed with the greater
prospects in California, Mr. Harkins crossed the Isthmus of Panama, made his
way to San Francisco, traveled inland to Stockton, and for a time worked on a
ranch east of that town, owned by William Overhiser. In 1860, however, he followed his natural
bent and took up homesteading on the river; and from that time until he
retired, 1910, he was one of the most familiar figures on inland California
waters, and was particularly well-known in the Delta District. He held the record, in fact, for the longest
term of river-boat service in the Delta District boasted by any man, and he was
also about as long in river service as any other man living at that time in the
Golden State.
He first worked as a deck-hand upon
the steamer “Christiana,” which made a few trips each spring, when the water
was high, from Stockton to Fresno Landing, near Fresno, towing a barge loaded
with grain and freight, and taking from two to three weeks to make the
trip. Later, he and his brother Daniel
owned a steamer of their own, and made trips to San Francisco and
Sacramento. For a time, John Harkins
retired from the river-work and engaged in the wholesale and retail handling of
wood in Stockton, maintaining an office in a small building at the corner of
California and Sonora streets. This was
about thirty-four years ago, and that old office structure now stands in
Captain Harkins’ backyard, a relic of pioneer days. The wood sold was cut in the mountains, and
hauled to Stockton. Mr. Harkins also did
teaming and general hauling in earlier days, and was kept so busy that he
operated as many as eight teams.
Resuming activity on the river, for
which he was so well qualified, Captain Harkins was for many years
pilot and captain on freight and passenger boats between Stockton and San
Francisco. He was with the old
Independent Line owned by T. C. Walker, and later he was pilot on the steamer
“T. C. Walker” of the California Navigation and Improvement Company. Today, in his well-earned retirement, he
enjoys the pleasant associations of membership in the Master Pilots Association
of San Francisco.
At Stockton, on June 3, 1872,
Captain Harkins was married to Miss Mary Ann McCarthy, a native of Ireland, by
whom he had eight children, five of whom are still living. James P. Harkins is the well-known railroad
man whose story is given in detail elsewhere in this volume; and his brothers
are Harry and Ed. A. Harkins. One
daughter, Francisca, is Sister Superior of St. Agnes Academy, Stockton; and the
other daughter, Alice Frances, has become Mrs. A. J. Higgins, of Vallejo.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
701. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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