San
Joaquin County
Biographies
BASILIO LAOGIER
Among the pioneers of this western
commonwealth, the late Basilio Laogier
was a native of France, born in Nice, March 6, 1820, the son of Charles and
Josephine (Moisin) Laogier,
also natives of that country, the father maintaining a wholesale and retail
mercantile establishment and also managing a hotel at Nice. There the son was reared and educated and soon
after leaving school he secured a position with the French government in the
arsenals and for three years his duties kept him in Algiers. At the end of this time he remained there
three years longer on his own account during this time carrying on a profitable
business as locksmith and gunsmith.
Thereafter he returned to France, and during the month he spent in
Marseilles he made preparations to start on an extended tour of the world. From Marseilles he shipped to Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, and after stopping there for a time resumed the voyage, rounding Cape
Horn and finally reaching the port of Valparaiso, Chile, in safety. From this South American port he continued
his travels to San Francisco, arriving at that port January 22, 1850. He had not been in that city long, however,
before he was attracted to the mines, and going to Mokelumne Hill, he mined
there with average success for a few months, and then returned to San
Francisco, reaching that city the day following the disastrous fire. Six months later he again went to the mines,
but after seven months more of this life he gave it up altogether and
thereafter settled in Stockton, where for a time he conducted a locksmith
establishment. Believing that a lucrative
business could be established in hauling supplies to the mines, he embarked in
the pack-train business in 1858, hauling goods to Murphy’s, Virginia City, and
other mining camps in that vicinity. In
the course of a few years interest in the mines there began to lessen, and at
the same time the cost of fodder for his mules had increased to such an extent
as to make continuance at the business almost prohibitive. Some idea of the cost may be gathered from
the fact that during the year 1864 the feed for his pack mules cost him at the
rate of $300 a month. This condition of
affairs made it necessary for him to change his location, and from there he
went to the mining region about Sacramento, hauling supplies to Red Bluff,
Colusa, Tehama, and Yreka. He also
attempted to take the Indian trail to Klamath Lake, but the Indians resented
the intrusion and drove him away, and he then journeyed by way of the lava
beds, Warm Springs and Fort Dalles to Dalles.
From that pint he sent his pack-train overland to Umatilla, while he
himself took the steamer for that point and from there took a cargo to Bannock
City. The expedition proved sufficiently
profitable to warrant two more similar trips.
He then proceeded to Placerville, Centerville, passing through Oregon on
his way to Walla Walla, Washington, which city he reached on November 25, in
the midst of a heavy snowstorm. From
that point he took a steamer for San Francisco, reaching that city January 10,
1865, and after having his gold coined at the mint, continued his journey to
Stockton. Here he entered the brokerage
business and real estate and still later he opened a grocery store. Finally, however, in 1870, he retired from
active business altogether and thereafter lived retired until his death, May 3,
1897.
In Stockton, March 27, 1869, Mr.
Laogier was united in marriage to Miss Dionisia
Ponce. Mrs. Laogier was born in
Chihuahua, Mexico, and is the daughter of Nemesio
Ponce, a merchant and trader in that Mexican city. They were the parents of one daughter, Mrs. Ysabel L. Young, the wife of the late William J. Young, a
prominent physician and surgeon of Stockton.
Mrs. Laogier, too, has passed away.
She was a woman of fine public spirit and generous to those less
fortunate than herself; she was a member of the Catholic Ladies Aid and for
many years was grand director of the order; she was also active in the work of
the Children’s Home in Stockton. Mr.
Laogier was a well-educated man; his extensive travels giving him an unusual
opportunity to exercise his ready observation, a faculty which added to a keen
intellect resulted naturally in a fund of information. His early residence in the state made him
eligible to the San Joaquin Society of California Pioneers, of which body he
was a prominent member.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
400-403. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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