San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN S. LADD
An interesting representative of one
of the worthiest of pioneer families is John S. Ladd, of 344 South Sutter
Street, Stockton, who was born in this city on December 27, 1873, the son of
John S. and Mary C. (Swan) Ladd, natives respectively of Vermont and
Massachusetts. John Seneca Ladd, the
father, was born in Danville, Caledonia County, Vermont, on April 28, 1832, a
son of Seneca and Pamelia (Estabrook) Ladd, both natives of the Green Mountain
State. The mother was born in 1808, and
died on August 26, 1846; the father survived her twenty-six years, and died at
the age of sixty-eight years.
Great-grandfather Samuel Estabrook was of Scotch parentage, a farmer by
occupation, and he lived to be ninety-nine years of age. He married Miss Susan E. Colby, and she also
attained a splendid old age, drying in her eight-fifth year. Great-grandfather Colby was a soldier in the
Revolution, and he reached the age of eighty-nine. Great-grandfather Warren Ladd was also a
farmer and lived to an advanced age.
Seneca Ladd, grandfather of John S. Ladd, a blacksmith by trade, left
his shop in Danville, Vermont, in 1850, and came to California by way of
Panama, and mined for two years on the Tuolumne River, and returned to Vermont
in 1852, by way of the Nicaragua route.
John S. Ladd, the father of our subject, attended the district school of
Vermont, and then he went to the famous Phillips Academy. After that he entered the employ of the
Fairbanks Scale Company, in St. Johnsbury, Vermont,
and in 1851, he too, started for California coming by way of the Nicaragua
route, being among the first to travel along that way.
He arrived in San Francisco on April
16, 1851, and for a time found employment there; and on February 15, 1852, he
went inland to the mines in Tuolumne County, where he remained for two
years. In 1854, he embarked in
freighting with his brother, George S. Ladd, under the firm name of Ladd &
Brother; and for fifteen years they teamed to the southern mines. In 1866 the brothers bought 800 acres of land
near Collegeville, on the Mariposa Road, eight miles east of Stockton, where
they raised wheat and sheep; and in 1870 they divided the land, and later John
S. Ladd sold his portion. He then bought
354 acres of land three miles east of Stockton, near the old racetrack, and
there he farmed, and the ranch is still owned by the family. On March 12, 1863, Mr. Ladd married Miss Mary
C. Swan, a native of Methuen, Massachusetts, where she was born on February 5,
1841, a daughter of Cabel and Judith (Pettengill) Swan, both natives of Massachusetts. Mary C. Swan came to California, making the
journey via the Isthmus of Panama, in 1860, and it was in San Francisco the
young people met and their marriage occurred.
Three children were born to John S. Ladd and his good wife. May Alice first saw light on January 21, 1864,
and was graduated from the high school and later received a diploma from the
San Jose State Normal. She was married
in Stockton on July 30, 1887, to Milton H. Kingsbury, Ex-chief of police, who
died January 7, 1900, and their union was blessed with the birth of twin
daughters, Mary Alice and Amanda Gage, and a son Milton. L. Pamelia Estabrook was born on October 22,
1868, and married Melvin H. Orr, who died on November 8, 1916; he was a
prominent attorney of Stockton, and a member of the law firm of Nichol, Orr
& Nutter, later Nutter & Orr. John S., our subject, is the youngest. John S. Ladd, the father, died December 29,
1912, and was survived by his widow until June 28, 1915.
John S. Ladd, Jr., attended the
Stockton schools there enjoying also the high school course, and then completed
the course at the Stockton Business College, and in 1892 he entered the postal
service, as clerk in the Stockton post office.
Later, he was assistant postmaster under T. A. Nelson. During the Spanish-American War, in 1899, he
was transferred to Manila as inspector, and he remained on the Islands until
December, 1905, his duties taking him all over the Islands, so that at the time
of his leaving he had travelled more miles than any other civilian on the Islands. The next year he resigned from the postal
service, then returned to Stockton, and was a clerk in the city assessor’s
office, and later deputy superintendent of streets, and in 1917 resigned to
farm grain on the home ranch; and he has continued a farmer ever since,
residing in the house where he was born.
On September 15, 1915, he was married at Alameda to Miss Mary C. Conchete, a native of Stockton and the descendant of a
pioneer family; and they have one son, John S. Ladd, 3rd, who was
born on April 3, 1920. Mr. Ladd is a
member of Stockton Lodge No. 218, B. P. O. E., and as No. 92, he is now one of
the oldest members.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
779. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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