San Joaquin County
Biographies
JAMES EDWARD KIDD.
JAMES EDWARD KIDD, a merchant
of Stockton, was born in Yorkville, New York, April 14, 1837, a son of John and
Maria (Carew) Kidd. The father, born in England but
brought up in Ireland, came to America about 1830, and settled in New York city. He had learned the trade of stone-cutter and became a
partner with Mr. Broderick, under the style of Broderick & Kidd, a
well-known house of the last generation in the stone-cutting and building line.
Among other large enterprises they obtained the contract to supply stone for
the Capitol in Washington. He died in New York, aged over fifty years.
Grandfather Richard Kidd, English by birth, and a civil engineer by occupation,
was married in England to a Miss Williams, and afterward moved to Ireland to
fill a professional position. He died a middle-aged man, but his wife lived to
be quite old. Grandfather Carew, a farmer near
Johnstown, Kilkenny County, Ireland, died of old age,
and his wife (by birth a Miss Keily) also lived to an
advanced age. After the death of her husband in New York, Mrs. John Kidd, with
her only surviving child, the subject of this sketch, moved to Savannah,
Georgia. He left Savannah for California by way of New Orleans and Panama, in
1851. Being detained on the Isthmus six months, he went to work as an express messenger
for Schlesinger & Co., forwarding agents and
bankers of Panama. Young Kidd made his weekly trip to Gorgona
in less than five hours, and thence by water to Chagres.
In 1852 he left Panama for California by sailing vessel, and arrived in San
Francisco in August, 1852. After a short stay in that city he came to Stockton,
and here, in partnership with Fred. Holder, he ran a large whale-boat of 4,000
pounds’ tonnage, transferring freight and passengers from Stockton channel to
the high lands at French Camp. They were paid one cent a pound for freight, and
made one trip a day for about two months, until the water subsided. Mr. Kidd
then tried mining around Sonora, and wasted about a year, only to find that
mining was not his forte. Returning to Stockton in 1854, he traveled two years
with a circus, admission fee being $1, and reserved seats on rough boards $2,
with tent crowded at every exhibition.
Mr. Kidd returned to the
paint business and spent about three years in Napa, in the house and sign
painting business, being of the firm of Bean & Kidd, and one year in
Pacheco, without a partner, in the same line. He was married in San Francisco,
in 1861, to Mrs. Jane (Morgan) Breen, a native of Erie, Pennsylvania, who had
come to San Francisco about 1856, and was there married and widowed in a few
years. In 1862 he moved to Sacramento, where he became a member of the firm of
Campbell & Kidd, house and sign painter, and later of Calvin & Kidd, in
the same line. In 1869 he returned to Stockton, and here continued the same
business, but without a partner. In 1879 he bought his present store at 178
Main street, and has since carried on a more general business, dealing in
paints, oils, wall-paper, glass, and a full supply of painters’, paper-hangers’
and artists’ materials. He has also bought and sold tracts of land at different
times, and in August, 1887, laid out Kidd’s addition to Stockton, about
thirty-three acres, extending from Sacramento street
to the City Homestead tract, and from Second to Sixth street. Mr. Kidd has been
a member of the city council one term. He has belonged to the Masonic order
about twenty-two years, joining Union Lodge, No. 2, of Sacramento, and is now a
Master Mason of Morning Star Lodge of this city.
Mr. and Mrs. Kidd have six
children, the two eldest being born in Sacramento, and the others in this city:
Edward L., 1867; Maria Amy, 1869; Mercedes, 1873; Bennett, October 14, 1875;
Elizabeth, 1877; Joseph, 1879. Edward L., a graduate of the business college,
is book-keeper.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 449-450. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Genealogy Databases