San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WARREN LAMB
Among the more recent business
organizations of Tracy, San Joaquin County, is the
Orange Crush Bottling Company, incorporated at $75,000. The main office of the company is at Sixth
and B streets, Tracy, and there are branch offices with bottling works in
Stockton and Turlock, California. The
proprietor, Warren Lamb, was born at Charleston, Lee County, Iowa, on March 28,
1857, a son of James and Sarah (Sloars) Lamb, both
natives of Richmond, Indiana. His
father, James Lamb, came to California in 1849, but returned to New York via
Panama and thence to Indiana, where he was married. The young people then removed to Iowa in 1856
and engaged in farming and stockraising, and in 1860, with a party of fifteen
ox-teams started across the plains; after six months they arrived in Clements,
Jackson Valley, Calaveras County, California. The company experienced many hardships and
adventures, but had no trouble with the Indians. Securing land they began to farm, but in 1862
a disastrous flood almost ruined the settlers of Jackson Valley. In 1863 Mrs. Sarah Lamb passed away and the
family was broken up until in 1866, when his father married again and their
home was once more established; also their property was reclaimed, and ten
years were spent in Jackson Valley, where Warren learned to do farm work, and
remained at home until 1880.
Mr. Lamb’s marriage united him with
Miss Hattie E. Minser, a native of Indiana, but who
came west with her parents in 1860. They
are the parents of four children, as follows:
James N., born in Calaveras County in 1886, married Miss Pearl Gieseke, and they have one son. They reside on Seventh Street, Tracy, and he
is a prominent member in the Knights of Pythias, Native Sons of the Golden
West, and treasurer of the Foresters of America. He has held a number of public offices in
Tracy, and is now the vice-president and general manager of the Orange Crush
Bottling Company. Ida M. is the wife of
John W. Shaw and they have one son and reside in Tracy; Ethel E. is the wife of
A. C. Shaw and they have one daughter and reside in Stockton; W. Ray Lamb is
married and has one son and they reside in Stockton; he is a stockholder in the
Orange Crush Bottling Company and is manager of the Stockton branch of the
company.
Mr. Lamb farmed in the Elliott district of San Joaquin County, and in 1890 removed to
Valley Springs where he established a livery and hotel business, which he
conducted successfully for ten years. In
1900 he made a trip to Alaska and the following year removed his family to St.
Michaels, and the following three years were spent in prospecting and mining,
with some success, but on account of health conditions in 1903 he returned to
California and settled in Livermore, Alameda County. Here he established a small business for the
manufacture of soda water and in 1914 the business had so increased that a
branch store was established in Tracy, with James N. Lamb, his son, in charge,
known as Lamb & Sons, dealers in soda water, ice, fuel and feed. As representatives of the National Ice
Company they do a fine business in the summer with ice and soda. This company owns the exclusive right to
bottle and distribute Ward’s Orange Crush and Lemon Crush soda drinks in the
following four counties: San Joaquin,
Contra Costa, Stanislaus, and Merced.
The plant at Tracy is equipped with up-to-date machinery and has a
capacity of turning out 800 dozen bottles per day. At Turlock the company is constructing a fine
hollow tile building with complete modern equipment. More than 500 cases of soda water will be
produced daily by the company, and it will be one of the largest and best
equipped bottling companies in the valley.
The Lamb family has
always been strong advocates of irrigation and have been useful factors
in the development of the locality in which they reside. Mr. Lamb owns a thirty-acre alfalfa ranch in
the West Side Irrigation District, and is a stockholder and director in the
Pioneer Bank of Tracy. Her served as a
member of the Republican County Central Committee and was one year a delegate
to the state convention. For over forty
years Mr. Lamb has been an active member of Odd Fellows’ Lodge No. 219, and is
past grand of same; is a member of the Rebekah lodge and has passed all the
chairs and was a delegate to the grand lodge.
He is a past officer of the Foresters of America, and past president of
the Chamber of Commerce of Tracy.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
891. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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