San
Joaquin County
Biographies
FRED LANGHORST
Since 1877 Fred Langhorst has been a
resident of San Joaquin County, where he now resides and owns a beautiful and
highly productive almond orchard. He was
born in Westphalia, Germany, on January 11, 1853, the sixth in a family of
eight children born to Christian and Doris Langhorst, the names of the children
being as follows: Mary, Conrad, Minnie,
William, Marie, Fred, our subject, Sophie and Lena, the last two being twins.
The father was a farmer in his native country and passed away there at the age
of eighty years; the mother also lived to be about eighty years old.
Fred Langhorst was trained from his
youth to the work of the farm, assisting in its development through the summer
months, while in the winter seasons he went to school. When he was fifteen years old, his sister
Minnie, was coming to Beardstown, Cass County, Illinois, to be married, and so
our subject prevailed on his parents to let him come along. Upon her arrival in Illinois, Minnie
Langhorst became Mrs. Heitcamp. Fred Langhorst remained in Illinois for six
years working for wages, meantime becoming an American citizen. At the end of that time he returned to his
German home for a visit of a few months, then returned to Illinois and worked
for wages for three more years, then in 1877 came to California and settled at
Lodi, where he has since continuously resided.
For three years after his arrival in San Joaquin County, he worked for
Christ Beckman as a farm hand. In
October, 1880, at Lodi, he was married to Miss Flora Blass, a native of
California, born in Tuolumne County near Columbia, and there she was reared and
educated. Her father passed away when
she was too young to remember him and subsequently her mother, Mrs. Minnie
Blass, married John Fox; a miner in the Columbia gold mines. After his marriage, Mr. Langhorst settled
five miles southeast of Lodi on the corner of Alpine Road and Harney Lane; and
there bought 160 acres of land which he farmed for twenty-one years, and then
sold it and moved to Lodi. He then
rented a five-acre almond orchard from Ida Hill and later purchased a ten-acre
almond orchard on South School Street, later on selling five acres of it. He is a Republican in national politics and
fraternally a member of the I. O. O. F. and Knights of Pythias and with Mrs.
Langhorst is a member of the Rebekahs, Mrs. Langhorst having been recording
secretary of the latter for the past five years; she is also recording
secretary of the Pythian Sisters lodge of Lodi.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1380. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases