San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES DANIEL HOLBROOK
A successful rancher, located
three-quarters of a mile from Dougherty Station and two and one-half miles from
Lodi, is Charles Daniel Holbrook. He was
born in Orleans County, Vermont, on June 29, 1874, a son of Oscar J. and Ida
(Collins) Holbrook, both parents being of Revolutionary stock. Oscar Holbrook was a farmer of Orleans
County, and there Charles Daniel first attended school; later he attended the
Bryant-Stratton Business College at Chicago.
There were but two children in the family, Charles Daniel and Effie, who
passed away in 1892. The father lived to
be seventy-four years old, but the mother passed away when only thirty-seven
years old.
Leaving home when he was nineteen
years of age, Charles Daniel Holbrook took up newspaper work, working first on
Chicago papers, and then going into business for himself. For twelve years he edited “The Sheep
Breeder’s Criterion,” a publication devoted almost entirely to livestock and
wool; afterwards this publication was absorbed by “The American Sheep Breeder
and Wool Grower.”
In 1896 Mr. Holbrook’s father came
to California and bought a twenty-acre ranch, which he has since set to
vineyard and orchard, ten acres in vineyard, five acres in cherries, four acres
in peaches, and one acre in almonds. On
this place Charles Daniel Holbrook now resides.
About 1912 Mr. Holbrook installed a pumping plant on his ranch, consisting
of a four-inch pump with a ten-horse-power motor. In 1911 he removed to Los Angeles and engaged
in an office-equipping business, in connection with the Barker Brothers
Furniture Company. For ten years he was
engaged in this line of work, returning to his ranch near Lodi on January 1, 1922. He also owns a two-and-a-half acre place at
Gardena, California.
On October 25, 1902, at Chicago,
occurred the first marriage of Mr. Holbrook, which united him with Miss Mary
Stanley, a native of Iowa and a daughter of Willard N. and Cornelia (Tompkins)
Stanley. She was a graduate of Simpson
College at Indianola, Iowa; whither her parents had removed from near
Tonawanda, Niagara County, in northern New York. Of this union there were two children,
Cornelia and Marcia. Mr. Holbrook’s
second marriage occurred at Long Beach, California and united him with Miss
Nora McGahen, formerly a grand opera star, who for seven years was with the
Henry W. Savage Grand Opera Company, traveling all over the United States. Mr. Alfred Bennett McGahen, who grew up at the
family home at Lansing, Michigan, and formerly was also a member of the Henry
W. Savage English Grand Opera Company, is Mrs. Holbrook’s only surviving
brother. He is for the present making
his home with Mr. and Mrs. Holbrook, and has charge of the church choir in the
M. E. Church at Lodi. He has an
exceptional voice, and is noted as one of America’s foremost tenors, having
toured in Grand Opera all over the North American Continent and received
flattering press notices in all the leading cities. Mrs. Holbrook is affiliated with the Eastern
Star Lodge of Gardena, while Mr. Holbrook is a member of the Masonic Lodge at
Gardena. Politically Mr. Holbrook is a
Republican.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1091. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases