San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WILLIAM JOSEPH JONES
A well-known and enterprising
citizen of Lodi, William Joseph Jones has for the past fifteen years been in
the plumbing contracting business. He
was born on his father’s ranch on West Lane, Stockton, August 12, 1864, a son
of William and Mary Ellen (McKenna) Jones, the former a native of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, and the latter of New York City.
In 1850 the father, William Jones, crossed the plains to California,
where he worked in the mines. In 1854 he
was married to a Miss Johnson in Stockton, who lived only three months after
her marriage. In 1858 he returned to
Philadelphia, where he was married to Miss Mary Ellen McKenna, and then came to
California via Panama and settled at Stockton.
The father was a wheelwright by trade, and was in business with Charles
Christian on Market Street until 1863, when he bought a thirteen-acre home
place on West Lane. William Joseph was
the eldest of a family of seven children, the others being Charles Lincoln,
residing at Newman, California; Bernardina, a sister
at the Rio Vista Convent; Rosa, deceased at the age of two years; Rebecca Jane,
Mrs. T. C. Flynn, of Stockton; Frank M., of Alameda; and a seventh child, an
infant, deceased.
Joseph William Jones attended the
old North, the Weber and the Lafayette district schools. After his father bought a quarter-section of
land three and a half miles southeast of Lockeford, William had charge of it
until 1890, when the ranch was divided among the members of the family. From 1890 to 1907 he was employed in the
general merchandise store of Mr. Bruml in Lockeford. Then he took a course in the Coyne Plumbing
School in San Francisco, and afterwards was with the Putnam Hardware Company,
and then with the successor, John H. Davies, seven years in all. For the past eight years he has been in the
employ of Henderson Bros. Hardware Company at Lodi.
On September 27, 1892, in Lockeford,
Mr. Jones was married to Miss Katherine B. Ryan, a native of Australia, and a
daughter of John and Mary Ryan, both natives of Ireland, who soon after their
marriage went to Australia and in 1868 came to California and settled at
Lockeford, where they purchased 143 acres of grain land. There are four children in her parents’
family: Katherine B., Mrs. Jones;
Maggie, residing at Lockeford; Mary; and John.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones are the parents of eight children: Bernard; Agnes; Irene, now Mrs. Leo Bender,
of Oakland; Theresa, Mrs. Clarence Bauer, of Stockton; and Doris, Lawrence,
Raphael, and Walter. Mr. Jones is
fraternally affiliated with the Woodmen of the World, and is the present banker
of Lodi Camp; and he also belongs to the Knights of Columbus.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1628. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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