San
Joaquin County
Biographies
FRED H. JOHNSON
No man in San Joaquin County,
perhaps, has a wider acquaintance than Fred H. Johnson, who for a quarter of a
century has been one of the county’s trusted public officials, displaying a
fidelity and efficiency in the conduct of his offices that have won for him a
high place in the regard of the community.
Mr. Johnson was born on a ranch near Ripon, San Joaquin County, on
November 7, 1872, the son of Herman and Magdalena (Deck) Johnson, the former a
native of Holland, while Mrs. Johnson was born in Germany; both parents are now
deceased. The father, who was a
California pioneer, sailed through the Golden Gate in 1849, and soon after
located in Stockton. For some time he
freighted with ox teams to the mines near Sonora, Tuolumne County, and then
engaged in ranching, becoming a large landowner in San Joaquin County. He bought the Ripon ranch in 1850 and he also
owned what is now the Yost property in Stockton, one of the old landmarks of
the early days. He passed away in
1875. Mrs. Johnson was married a second
time, becoming the wife of Gustave Eichhoff, who died in 1892.
She survived him until November 30, 1910.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were the
parents of nine children, seven of them are living: Herman Johnson, Mrs. Annie M. Kincaid, Mrs.
Marry Harris, Mrs. Lillie S. Bodeson, Mrs. Helen
Murphy, Fred H. Johnson of this sketch, and Mrs. Barbara E. Sexton. Mr. Johnson gained his schooling at the Ripon
School and at Woodbridge Academy, and in 1895 he came to Stockton, where he
entered the official life at the court house, where he has been ever since,
more than twenty-five years of public service.
He was clerk in the county recorder’s office under Recorder A. G. Keagle for one year, then clerk in the county assessor’s
office under Charles L. Ortman from 1896 to 1900. In July, 1900, he was appointed a deputy in
the county clerk’s office, and in 1902 was made chief deputy under County Clerk
E. D. Graham, and he has since then held this responsible post, filling it to
the satisfaction of everyone and numbering his friends by the hundreds
throughout the county.
On February 11, 1899, Mr. Johnson
was married to Miss Mary E. McDonald, a native of Canada, and one daughter was
born to them, now Mrs. Ina B. Vogelgesang, the mother
of one son, Harold A. For years Mr. Johnson
has been very prominent in the fraternal life of Stockton; he has been a member
of the Native Sons of the Golden West since 1896; in 1899 he joined Truth Lodge
No. 55, I. O. O. F., and has passed through all chairs of this lodge, and in
1902 became a member of the Elks, and has been exalted ruler of the Stockton
Lodge. At the convention of this order
held in Chicago in the summer of 1920, Mr. Johnson had conferred upon him the
honor of representing the local lodge.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
791-792. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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