San
Joaquin County
Biographies
VITTORIO LAGORIO
An orchardist whose well-earned
success has made him an influential citizen is Vittorio Lagorio, who was born
in the province of Genoa, Italy, May 8, 1866.
He was a son of Angelo and Teresa (Russio) Lagorio, farmers near
Genoa. Of their eight children, Vittorio
is the fourth in order of birth. He was
raised on the home farm and was educated in the local schools. He was nineteen years old when he left his
home in Italy for America to join his brother Louis, who had come seven years
previously. Arriving in Stockton on
April 4, 1885, he began to work at anything that would earn him a livelihood, then went to San Francisco, where he worked in a sugar
refinery for one year. He then went to
Washington, where he bought a team of horses and was engaged in construction
work on the railroad building out of Port Townsend, receiving $50 a month for himself and team.
Returning to California he came to Stockton in 1892 and purchased a
fourteen-acre ranch in the Elmwood district on the Copperopolis Road, which he
developed into a profitable orchard and vineyard. Later he purchased thirty acres of the
Charles Haas ranch on Bishop Lane, which he also set out to vineyard and
orchard, later adding thirteen and three-quarters acres, on which he has built
a fine residence. The chief crops
produced on his ranch are apricots, peaches, and cherries, while between the
trees he raises fine vegetables for the market in Stockton. He also owns a half-interest in a ranch of
196 acres near Peters, where they have planted a twenty-acre vineyard, and will
rapidly set the whole acreage to vines.
Mr. Lagorio has great faith in the future of San Joaquin County lands
and Stockton real estate. He owns a
business building on Washington Street which he leases.
On October 5, 1896, Mr. Lagorio was
married to Miss Annie Sanguinetti, born in Stockton, a daughter of Angelo
Sanguinetti, an honored pioneer whose sketch also appears in this work. Mrs. Lagorio, a devoted wife and mother,
passed away May 20, 1914, leaving him six children: Emily, a graduate of Heald’s Business
College, and now bookkeeper in the Commercial & Savings Bank of Stockton;
Mary, who makes her home with her father; Angelo, educated at Heald’s Business
College, now a partner with his father in farming and fruit-raising; Lorraine,
a graduate of Heald’s Business College, now employed as stenographer for C. H.
Vance, attorney-at-law; Romildo, attending Stockton high school; and Vittorio,
Jr., still in grammar school.
In 1918 Mr. Lagorio made an extended
trip to his old home in Italy, visiting his friends and the scenes of his
boyhood days. While
there he was married a second time, being united with Laura Camera, who was
born in the vicinity of his old home.
Returning to his Stockton ranch, he again took up farming. In 1923 he completed a residence at 2020
North Center Street, Stockton, where he now resides, having turned over the
management of his ranches to his son Angelo.
He rightly retains a love for the land of his birth but he is loyal to
the institutions of his adopted country and his interests
center in the land of the Stars and Stripes, and particularly in California,
where he has steadily worked his way upward.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1464-1467. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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