San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOSEPH HARTMAN
Prominent among the most
enterprising, experienced, progressive and successful vineyardists of San
Joaquin County may well be numbered Joseph Hartman, whose fine “show place” is
situated one and one-half miles west of Acampo.
He was born in Wurttemberg, Germany, on November 25, 1864, the son of
William Hartman, a stonemason by trade, who had married Miss Caroline Haug. They were
intelligent, progressive folks, who encouraged the lad to study and permitted
him to go to school until he was seventeen years old. The oldest of a family of six children, he
was the first to take up a trade; and he learned the art of the old-time
blacksmith. His father lost his life
when he was forty years of age, while his mother has lived to be eighty-two.
At the end of his three years of
thorough apprenticeship, Joseph Hartman came out to America, with his mother
and his brothers and sisters, and settled in Nemaha County, Kansas; and there
he bought eighty acres of land, which he farmed for three years. His mother and the rest of the family
remained there for another three years, and Joseph went on to North Dakota,
whither he was later followed by the other members of the family, four of whom
took up grain land homesteads in Dickey County, North Dakota. The nearest town was a distance of five
miles. They pluckily persevered and
improved these ranches and, having sold out in 1905, they came out to
California and settled near Acampo, and there his mother is living with him
today, hale and hearty.
Mr. Hartman purchased forty acres of
young vineyard and planted the same to Mission, Tokay and Zinfandel grapes; and
since the ranch already had a good dwelling-house upon it, he was able the
easier to make a good start. He has
developed water from a ten-inch well, has a good pump, driven by an electric
motor, and gets an abundant stream for irrigation. Mr. Hartman has made his vineyard one of the
most desirable hereabouts; and while attending to business, he has also taken a
live and patriotic interest in the political issues of the day.
In Nemaha County, Kansas, on April
3, 1888, Mr. Hartman was married to Miss Caroline Relinger,
a native of that county, and the daughter of Martin Relinger. Mrs. Hartman is a gifted woman and an ideal
mother to her six children. The oldest
child, John, died at the age of eighteen; Gertrude has become Mrs. Strother, of Acampo; William is with his father; Pauline is
now Mrs. Edward McComb, of Lodi, and Theodore and
August still reside at home.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1095. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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