San
Joaquin County
Biographies
HENRY KAISER
A prominent rancher and a pioneer of
San Joaquin County, Henry Kaiser is now living retired from active business
cares, but still owns a fine ranch of 560 acres southeast of Stockton, on which
is produced large quantities of grain; in addition he owns his residence at
1443 South San Joaquin Street, Stockton, where he resides with his family. He was born near Salt Lake City, Utah, March
7, 1855, while his parents were en route from Cincinnati, Ohio, to California
in an ox-team train, but Mr. Kaiser is pleased to claim California as his
native state. He is the eldest of son of
a family of fifteen children born to Valentine and Catherine Kaiser, both
natives of Germany, but reared in Ohio.
When the Kaiser family arrived in
California in 1855, they located near San Jose, where they farmed for a couple
years, then sold out and moved to a wooded tract of land ten miles southeast of
Stockton, where the home was established and which is still the home of the
mother, highly honored and respected, now eighty-eight years old. Valentine Kaiser passed away at the old home
place in 1914 at the age of eighty-seven years.
Henry Kaiser attended the district school in the neighborhood of his
home and was reared on the farm and as soon as he was old enough assumed his
share of the work at home. In 1881 Mr.
Kaiser bought his first land and by subsequent purchases has added to the
original purchase until he now has 560 acres on which is raised large
quantities of wheat and hay, which has been produced for the past forty years
on his ranch.
In Stockton, September 30, 1901,
occurred the marriage of Mr. Kaiser and Miss Ella Sorensen, who was born in
Nephi, Utah, a daughter of Fred and Caroline E. (Buntzen)
Sorensen, natives of Denmark and Oldenburg, Germany, respectively, who
immigrated to the United States located first in Utah, where Mr. Sorensen was a
farmer for twenty years, and then brought his family to Stockton in 1897. The father has passed to the great beyond and
the mother now makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. Kaiser who look after her
comfort and welfare. They have been
blessed with one son, Edmon V. In 1917 the family removed to Stockton and
about one year ago Mr. Kaiser purchased his present residence at 1443 South San
Joaquin Street. Besides his residence,
Mr. Kaiser owns other valuable real estate in Stockton, which he purchased a
number of years ago, realizing that Stockton would eventually become a large
and prosperous commercial center. His
business career has been marked with upright dealing, and the fact that many of
his staunchest friends are those who have known him from boyhood is an
indication that his has been an upright, active and honorable life.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
600-605. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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