San Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES MORRILL KENISTON
CHARLES MORRILL KENISTON,
agent of the California Navigation and Improvement Company, in Stockton, was born in Manchester, New
Hampshire,
January 7, 1851, a son of Charles Calvin and Rebecca J. (McPherson) Keniston.
The mother, born in that State, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William McPherson,
was married in 1850, and died March 17, 1853, leaving one child, who is the
subject of this sketch. Both her parents lived to the age of about seventy. Her
husband, C. C. Keniston, was born in Franklin, New Hampshire, June 23, 1827, a son of Samuel and Lydia (Pingree) Keniston, both natives of that State. His
father, born in 1798, died in 1854, and the mother, who was three years older,
lived to the age of seventy, dying in 1865. Grandmother Keniston (by birth a
Miss Quimby) also a native of that State, lived to be ninety-six, dying about
1862. Grandfather Aquila Pingree owned a large tract of land and also carried
on the business of “clothier” or cloth-dresser. Two of his grandsons Pingree,
lawyers by profession, were colonels in the civil war, and one of these has
since been governor of Vermont.
The Kenistons and Pingrees are of New England descent
for several generations. C. C. Keniston received an academic education with a
view to becoming a teacher, but preferred to learn the trade of machinist. He
served as an apprentice from 1844 to 1847, in Manchester and there worked as a journeyman nine years.
Meanwhile he was again married December 1, 1855, to Mrs. Lucinda M. (Johnson)
Ferson, born in New
Hampshire,
January 31, 1828, a daughter of Sylvanus and Mary (Howard) Johnson, both
natives of that State. About 1856 Mr. C. C. Keniston was transferred by his
employers from the shop to the cotton-mill, where he worked for twenty years as
overseer. He came to California in 1878, arriving at Stockton on the 13th of August. Here he held the
position of book-keeper for Mr. P. Henderson five years and foreman four years.
In February, 1887, he went to work for Blake & McMahon, now Blake,
Carpenter & McMahon, as book-keeper, the position he still holds in 1890.
He is a deacon, trustee and treasurer of the Congregational Church, of which
Mrs. Keniston is also a member. He has been a member of the I. O. O. F. since
1848 and a charter member as well as First Noble Grand of Truth Lodge, No. 55,
of Stockton, and has belonged to the encampment about thirty
years, having passed the chair in that order also. Mr. and Mrs. Keniston have
been members of the I. O. G. T. for many years.
Charles Morrill Keniston, the subject of
this sketch, was educated in the public schools of Manchester, New Hampshire, fitted for college at Northwood Seminary in New Hampshire and was graduated from the Normal School of that
State in 1872. He taught in that institution for one year and in other schools
before and after graduation at intervals for five years. Meanwhile he had begun
the study of law in the office of Chief Justice Ladd of New Hampshire and followed it up by private study as opportunity
afforded. He came to California in 1874 and taught here in that and the following
year when he went East and took a full course in the Albany law-school. He was graduated from that institution in
1877 and admitted to the bar in New
York and New Hampshire. Returning to Stockton in that year he was elected principal of the Franklin school, retaining the position until 1880, and was
then elected superintendent of the public schools of this county, serving the
full term. He was deputy city attorney of Stockton the first term under the new constitution, and in
1883 formed a law partnership with Frank H. Smith under the style of Smith
& Keniston, which by the accession of Stanton L Carter, January 1, 1885,
became Carter, Smith & Keniston. Mr. Keniston withdrew from the firm in
1887 and spent that and part of the following year in southern California. Meanwhile he had served as a member of the board of
education in 1886. On his return from the South in May, 1888, he accepted the
position of Stockton agent for the California Steam Navigation Company,
changed in May, 1889, to the California Navigation and Improvement Company,
which position he still holds. In 1889 he was re-elected to the Board of
Education for four years.
Mr. Keniston was married in Lancaster, New Hampshire, 1874, to Miss Lucia Porter, a native of that State,
who died of consumption in Santa Barbara, California, in 1875, leaving no issue. He was again married in
1877 to Miss Nellie W. Nichols, born in Monmouth, Maine, August 12, 1856, a daughter of Martin M. and Flora A.
(Leadbetter) Nichols, both living in this city in 1890. The father was born in Monmouth, Maine, June 5, 1819, the mother in Livermore, Maine, November 30, 1820. The father is the youngest of
thirteen children, of whom eleven lived to be over seventy. His mother Nancy
(Blake) Nichols, a native of Meredith, New Hampshire, lived to be ninety-three, and his father, Nathaniel,
was over seventy at his death. Mr. and Mrs. Keniston have had three children,
of whom the oldest, Lucia Nicols Keniston, born September 20, 1878, happily
survives her two brothers.
Mr. Keniston has belonged to the I. O. O.
F. from the age of twenty-one, being now a member of Stockton Lodge, No. 11 of
which he has been secretary for eleven successive terms and Noble Grand in
1889. He is also a member of San Joaquin Lodge, No. 19, F. & A. M.,
Secretary of the Masonic Hall Committee, and Worthy Patron of Homo Chapter, No.
50, O. E. S. Mr. Keniston and family are regular attendants of the Congregational
church.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 346-347. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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