San Joaquin County
Biographies
JACOB KURTZ
Classed with the representative
horticulturists of San Joaquin County, Jacob Kurtz was born in Bon Homme County, South Dakota, October 10, 1888, a son of
Henry and Helen (Unruh) Kurtz. Henry
Kurtz was born and reared in Germany, where he learned the harnessmaker’s
trade. In young manhood he came to the
United States and settled in South Dakota, where he homesteaded land. There he married and reared a family of
eleven children, our subject being the fifth in order of birth. In 1903 he brought his family to California,
and settling in San Joaquin County, he bought a ten-acre ranch near Woodbridge,
where he resided until his death at the age of sixty-seven years. The mother is alive and resides in Lodi at
the present time. Following are the
names of the children born to Mrs. and Mrs. Kurtz: Henry, living in Montana; Carrie, Mrs. George
Moran, a widow, residing in Stockton; Edward, of Lodi; Anna, Mrs. William Ditton, of Fowler, Indiana; Jacob, the subject of this
review; Mary, Mrs. G. A. Brown of Rio Vista, California; Ruth, Mrs. William Stitt of Stockton; Bertha, Mrs. Thomas Churchill of Yreka,
California; Albert, of Palo Alto; Herman, of Lodi; and Minnie, of Lodi.
Jacob Kurtz began his education in
South Dakota, and after coming to California attended the Woodbridge public
school. From youth up he has known no
other business activity than general farming and fruit raising,
and has gained a very large degree of success in this line.
The marriage of Mr. Kurtz occurred
May 19, 1919, at Modesto, California, and united him with Miss Marie G. Lange,
born in Lodi, California, and a daughter of John Lange. Her father was a farmer who owned a tract of
land southeast of Lodi in the Beckman tract, and Mrs. Kurtz received her
education in the Lodi grammar school and the Stockton Business College. Mrs. Kurtz is one of a family of seven children: William, Herman, Meta, now Mrs. Zomig of Lodi; Albert, John, Emma, (deceased) and Marie
G. Seven years ago Mr. Kurtz bought his
present place of sixty acres near Woodbridge, on which there is an apricot
orchard of ten acres, six-year old trees, well cared for and heavy producers;
the balance of the land is in bearing vineyard.
The ranch is under the Stockton-Mokelumne
Irrigation System. Mr. Kurtz has further
improved his property with a fine modern bungalow. In politics he is a Republican, and with his
wife he belongs to the Lutheran Church of Lodi.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1538. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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