San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WILLIAM HENRY KLINGER
For sixty-six years, his entire
lifetime, William Henry Klinger has been a resident of San Joaquin County where
by close application to his business he has succeeded and has gained a liberal
competency, being accounted among the substantial agriculturists of his
locality. He was born near Linden,
California, April 19, 1856, the eldest son of George and Mary A. (Helmert) Klinger, both natives of Germany. George Klinger
was a remarkable person. He and his
father were both harness makers in Germany, George learning the trade from his
father and became very proficient. He
took a live interest in business and political affairs and became personally acquainted
with such men as Carl Schurz and General Ziegel, with
both of whom he renewed his acquaintance in the United States, at a later
date. He immigrated to the United States
in 1844, settling in St. Louis, Missouri, where he secured employment at his
trade, and made harness, saddles and other equipment to be used by the American
forces in the Mexican War. Later on he went
to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and when the news of the gold discovery in California
reached that city he resolved to seek his fortune at that El Dorado,
consequently in the early part of 1849, in company with other Argonauts, he
started for St. Louis, Missouri, by riverboat, expecting there to outfit for
the trip across the plains. Cholera,
however, broke out aboard the boat and when they came to St. Louis, they were
not permitted to land; so they pressed on up the Missouri River to
Independence, Missouri, where they got up a train of sixty great prairie
schooners drawn by oxen. Amid untold
obstacles and hardships, they pressed on to the land of gold and after a six
months’ journey pulled up in what is now Butte County, where Mr. Klinger met
General John Bidwell with whom he made arrangements to work a placer mining
project at Bidwell’s Bar. After about
two years of mining he returned to his trade and in 1851, at Sacramento, he
made the first horse-collar that was ever made in California. He followed his trade in Sacramento for
several years, and later went into business for himself in that line at
Stockton, which he carried on successfully until 1855 when he located on a ranch
near Linden where he owned 160 acres of land and on which he resided until his
death. George Klinger received his United
States citizenship while residing in the east and cast his first vote for
Martin Van Buren; was a Republican in politics, and fraternally was a past
grand of Scio Lodge, No. 102, I. O. O. F., at Linden. For eight consecutive years he served as
deputy county assessor of San Joaquin County in Douglas Township, and for
twenty years was a trustee of the Linden school board. For twenty-six years he served as agent for
the Hartford Fire Insurance Company.
Nine children were born to this pioneer couple: William Henry, the subject of this sketch;
Sarah, Mrs. Conrad Gischel; Mary A., Mrs. Harry
Little; John; Minnie, Mrs. Lewis Grimsley; Matilda,
Mrs. Augustus Welsher; Louisa, Mrs. Henry Reuter;
George W.; and Charles A. The mother of
our subject passed away in 1906, the father surviving until 1909, when he died
aged eighty-four years old.
William Henry Klinger received his
education in the Linden school and was reared to work on his father’s farm and
thus at an early age became associated with his father in agricultural
pursuits. On January 13, 1881, at Round
Timber, San Joaquin County, he was united in marriage with Belle Goucher, born
at Dublin, California, a daughter of James and Mary (Heaton) Goucher. James Goucher was born in Parkersburg, West
Virginia, in 1821, and was married to Miss Mary Heaton in 1845. He started for the coast in 1849 and of the
party of twenty men only five survived and arrived in California. He engaged in mining near Weaverville for
four years, then moved to Santa Clara County where he bought a ranch near San
Jose; there he remained for one year, then returned to West Virginia for his
family. George G. Goucher, a brother of
Mrs. Klinger, later state senator from California, was a babe of a month when
he was brought to California. James
Goucher served as judge on the Vigilante Committee in early days and was a
member of the group that ran down the Joshua Holden Gardens near Sonora, a
notorious den of gamblers and murderers in the early days of California. Mrs. Klinger comes from pre-Revolutionary
American stock. Her mother was a cousin
of Gen. Robert E. Lee, of the Confederate Army, and is descended from James
Carter, the first governor of Virginia. Mrs.
Klinger’s people have a genealogy which goes back to the twelfth century, the
lineage tracing back to Charlemagne. She
is an accomplished lady, a woman of great force of character, and is one of
California’s most favored daughters. Mr.
and Mrs. Klinger are the parents of six children: Maude Irene; William W.;
Elva; Floyd A.; Helmert; and Alma. Besides their own family, they have adopted
and reared twelve children less fortunate, a number of who are men and women
who have gone from the Klinger home to assume the duties of life on their own
account, while the youngest is still unable to walk. The satisfaction of caring for and rearing
these children has meant much to Mr. and Mrs. Klinger. In 1904 Mr. Klinger rented the Casa Blanca
Rancho of 1,200 acres, which was devoted to grain raising,
but the flood of 1906 caused an entire loss of crops; then he rented a ranch of
1,280 acres south of Lathrop for three years, which yielded good crops. In 1909 he purchased forty acres near Ripon
and from time to time has added to them until they now number 175 acres,
seventy of which is in vineyard and the balance in orchard and alfalfa and on
which Mr. Klinger conducts a dairy. This
worthy couple has the esteem and good will of the entire community, where they
are respected for their honorable principles, upright dealings and true
worth. Mr. Klinger is six feet four
inches in height and is a splendid type of western manhood. He enjoys the distinction of being the youngest
pioneer whose picture adorns the historic walls of Fort Sutter, California, an
honor well bestowed, as the is one of the worthiest of all of the Native Sons
of the Golden West.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
538-543. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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