San
Joaquin County
Biographies
FRANK F. IREY
Emphatically in accord with the true
western spirit, and one whose confidence in San Joaquin County’s future grows
with his own ever-increasing success, Frank F. Irey has since the summer of
1904 been a prominent factor in the progress of the Lodi district. He was born in the rural district of Moniteau
County, Missouri, on March 29, 1877, and was reared to manhood on a farm, his
education being obtained from the district schools. During the year of 1898 he decided to come
west and located in New Mexico where he followed mining and railroading with
the Santa Fe Company for two years; then in 1900 he located in Riverside,
California, and there engaged in farming.
In the summer of 1904 he drove into
Lodi from Riverside with a team of four horses hitched to a wagon, having $500
in his pocket and a good store of determination and perseverance, which has
aided him in becoming a big factor in the development of the Lodi
district. He started to do teaming,
hauling grapes from the vineyards to the packing houses; his first work being
the hauling of a carload of grapes daily with a four-horse team from the El Coval vineyard to the packing house, which was considered a
record in those days. He has built up a
large transfer, express and contract hauling business and now owns and operates
eleven motor trucks. He does excavating
for basements. For all the large
buildings erected during recent years, the excavating has been done by Mr.
Irey; he has also done much house moving, his record being the moving of a
large house seven miles. With his
partner, S. W. McCleary, he graded and did macadam work on many of the country
roads; also constructed bridges and other substantial improvements. He has been extremely active in the real
estate line, buying, planting and improving and then selling many vineyards in the
Lodi district; he has also built a number of residences in Lodi, disposing of
them at a fair profit. At one time he
owned a quarter of a block on Grand Avenue, but a greater part has been sold; a
modern eight-apartment house on Grand Avenue was erected by him, and he owns a
valuable corner lot on Pine and Washington streets on which he intends to erect
a modern apartment house. His real
estate holdings extend into Butte County, where he owns an interest in a nine-hundred-acre
timber tract located near the city of Chico; he also has property in the city
of Alameda.
Mr. Irey has been married three
times, there being three children by his first marriage: William Leslie, Leona May, and Cecil Raymond;
by his second marriage there was one child, Mabel Elmira; his third marriage
united him with Miss Rebecca Beryman of Illinois, and
they have one child, Paul Ardon. Fraternally he is a member of the Blue Lodge
of Masons, No. 256.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1423. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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