San
Joaquin County
Biographies
LAWRENCE F. JENSEN
A popular merchant, who has been
unusually successful and has thereby evidenced the possession of exceptional
talent for the conducting of one of the most important lines of commercial
endeavor, is Lawrence F. Jensen, the experienced and wide-awake grocer of 16-18
West Elm Street, Lodi. He was born in
Schleswig-Holstein on October 12, 1877 and when fifteen years of age came to
America. He reached Stockton a poor boy,
but he obtained work in the grocery store of Thomas F. Knutzen on East Weber
Avenue, where he was offered at first four dollars per month and his
board. By strict economy, he saved $150,
and then he entered business for himself, taking in C. A. Ziemer
as a partner. Later this partnership was
dissolved, and Mr. Jensen went to Oakland, where he remained for two years.
In 1908 Mr. Jenson located in Lodi,
and here he established a small store on West Pine Street, with a capital of
only $250, and a horse and wagon, and he sold Schillings’ goods in the country
districts. As his business grew, he moved
to his present location, and ever since coming here, he has been very
successful. He has built up the largest
cash business in Lodi, and his crockery department occupies a store by itself,
and contains one of the largest and most complete stocks in the county. Plans are also being made to increase the
capacity of the establishment by an addition of fifty feet.
At Lodi in 1899 Mr. Jensen married
Miss Emma Gimbel, who was born three miles east of Lodi, on the ranch of her
father, Henry Gimbel, a well-known early settler of San Joaquin County, and an
extensive grain-grower. The family
attends the German Lutheran Church, and Mr. Jensen is a member of the Knights
of Pythias of Lodi. He has always
contributed to forward any good movement designed to benefit the community, and
during the War he was active in Liberty Loan work, being first, last and all
the time an American citizen not only living in, but living for, America.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1299. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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