San
Joaquin County
Biographies
Many years have passed since the
family to which John Lester Hemphill belongs became identified with the
agricultural interests of San Joaquin County.
Its members have been active in its progress and development, and our
subject, too, since old enough to hold a plow, has done his share toward the
development of this section of the state.
He was born on the old Hemphill ranch, located about five miles west of
Lodi on the Sargent Road, May 11, 1888, the youngest
of two sons of Edward H. and Lena (Walkmesiter)
Hemphill, the former a native of Linn County, Iowa, and the latter of Canton Berne,
Switzerland. The Hemphill family
originally came from Ireland and settled in Ohio, but when Grandfather John
Hemphill was twenty-one years old he removed to Linn County, Iowa, and was
living there when the Civil War broke out.
He served under Sherman and was in the celebrated March to the
Sea, at which time he lost his health.
At the close of the War he was mustered out of service and returned to
his home in Iowa. In 1866 he came to
California for his health, and finding this climate a congenial one, in 1867 he
brought his family here and located in San Joaquin County, where he bought a
ranch of 160 acres, now the home place of our subject. He married Miss Elizabeth Thompson, a native
of Pennsylvania, and they were the parents of four children, of whom the father
of our subject was the eldest.
Grandfather Hemphill owned a section of land at the time of his death in
1885, and became a very successful farmer.
Of the old Hemphill ranch, the father still owns 160 acres, and
twenty-five more adjoining of which fifty-two acres is in vineyard; and our
subject leases the place from his father and resides there. The father is still living and resides in
Lodi, but the mother passed away in January, 1911.
John Lester Hemphill received a
grammar school education in the schools of Lodi. On July 27, 1911, at Sacramento, California,
he was married to Miss Adele Jones, born west of Woodbridge on the old Jones
ranch. Her father, Thomas Jones, a
native of Wales, was a pioneer of California; and her mother, Amelia (Bishofberger) Jones, was a daughter of a very early pioneer
of California, who came from Switzerland.
Both parents are deceased. Mr.
and Mrs. Hemphill are the parents of five sons:
Maurice, Elwin, Delbert, Donald and Wesley. In 1911 Mr. Hemphill began work as a helper
in old Lodi Garage, and learned automobile repairing. In1913 he went to Woodland, where he was a
mechanic in Allen’s Garage and later Meier’s Garage. In 1915 he removed to Sacramento, where he
started business as a member of the firm of R. A. Meier Reo Company, located at
1308 K Street, handling Reo cars. In 1917
he sold out and entered the employ of the State Highway Company, where he had
charge, as foreman of maintenance of the Ford cars at 34th and R
Streets. He continued there until 1921,
when he resigned to return home and engage in ranching. In politics he is a Republican.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1549. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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