San
Joaquin County
Biographies
GEORGE C. LAWRY
One of the pioneer families in the
Golden State is that which finds a worthy representative in San Joaquin County
in George C. Lawry. The Lawry’s have
ever borne their part in the upbuilding and
development of this region, and have invariably been exponents of
progress. Mr. Lawry was born on his
father’s ranch on Harney Lane, July 9, 1872, a son of Benjamin H. and Sarah
(Pope) Lawry. The father was a native of
North Anson, Maine, born in 1829, but was reared in Boston and there learned
the machinist’s trade. In 1859 he came
direct to California and settled in Stockton, where he was engaged in the flour
mills as engineer; later he was engineer at the Linden flour mill. He then went to Stockton and opened a machine
shop and his family lived on the ranch on Harney Lane which he had purchased,
first a quarter-section, and then later added another quarter-section, and then
later added another quarter-section of land, which was devoted to general
farming, after the brush and timber had been cleared away. Mr. and Mrs. Lawry were the parents of four
children: John M., Cora E., wife of W.
J. Hunter; George C, the subject of this sketch, and Susie I., Mrs. F. W. Coblentz. The father
passed away on July 5, 1883, at the age of fifty-three years and seven
months. After the death of her husband,
Mrs. Lawry superintended the farm in a very creditable manner, her management
showing ability and resourcefulness. She
passed away in May, 1908.
George C. Lawry received his
education in the Live Oak district school and after finishing the eighth grade
attended the San Joaquin Valley College at Woodbridge. After finishing school he helped his mother about
three years with the management of the ranch, and at the same time he leased a
grain ranch of 200 acres near Lockeford and engaged
in farming for three years. In 1894 he
leased some bottom land on the Mokelumne River and
began to raise potatoes. With his
season’s crop of about sixty tons of baled hay, 300 sacks of barley and 400
sacks of potatoes he went to Mokelumne Hill, hauling
all this produce to the mountains with teams and opened a grain, feed and
livery stable business. He also engaged
in farming, leasing 300 acres in one tract and a section of land from Mrs. Leota, where, besides raising hay and grain, he started in
the stock business and got his first experience in that work.
Remaining at Mokelumne
Hill for seven years, Mr. Lawry then went to Valley Springs and there bought
640 acres of land and within three years added 320 acres to his holdings in
that vicinity, also leasing 2,000 acres of range land, and engaged in the stock
business, his average never falling below 250 head and many times going over
that. During the first four years of his
residence at Valley Springs he teamed and hauled provisions to the mines. Mr. Lawry also acquired 700 acres below Lodi
in the tule land, which he still owns. The family resided at Valley Springs for seventeen
years, then came back to Lodi, and now lives on a fifty-acre ranch, a portion
of the old home place, deeded to him by his mother. When Mr. Lawry received it it was a stubble field; he put in nine acres in Tokay
vineyard and the balance in Zinfandel grapes; he has laid three-quarters of a
mile of concrete pipe for irrigation purposes and has a five-inch pump with a
twenty horsepower motor. In 1921 he
built a fine, new, modern bungalow on his place.
At Lockeford
on December 5, 1894, Mr. Lawry was united in marriage with Miss Sarah M. Hart,
daughter of Edward and Mary Jane (Ralph) Hart, both born, reared and married in
England, where their first two children were born, the others being native
Californians. Their names are: Arthur J., deceased; William, living near
Clements; Edward lives at Elliott; Sarah M., Mrs. Lawry; Eletha
A, Mr. George Olson of Linden; Harry J., of Elliott; and Albert, of
Clements. Edward Hart and his family
came to California in 1871 and located on a ranch near Clements, which he
purchased and on which he lived until his death, as did his wife. He was a fancier of bronze turkeys,
exhibiting at nearly all the fairs held in northern California and always
taking first prize; he also shipped birds to various western states and to New
Zealand and Australia. He was a highly
respected citizen and at the time of his death was mourned by a wide circle of
friends.
Mr. and Mrs. Lawry have had six
children: George Melbourn
worked with his father on the home place until he entered the service of his
country in the World War. After
receiving his discharge from the army, he helped his father that season, then located on a ranch of forty acres nearby for a
year. He then managed a 280-acre ranch
near Stockton, running about 1,400 head of sheep and a dairy; soon after he
took his sheep to a 1,000-acre ranch in the hills, controlled by his father,
and when he sold off his flocks he went to Los Angeles and engaged in the
foundry business. Having a natural
mechanical talent, he has succeeded in his undertakings. He married Miss Imogene Hawkins of Lodi and
they have a daughter, Vallerie June. Irene Lawry married Lester Magellan of
Stockton and has two children, Betty Vern and Bill; Hazel is the wife of E. H.
Hawkins of Acampo and has one child, Gerald; Alma became the wife of Otto Sapp
of Stockton and the mother of Robert and Lawrence Lester; Ethel and Theodore
are at home with their parents.
Mr. Lawry has always been interested
in the advancement and development of the educational system of San Joaquin
County and was one of the organizers and was clerk of the board of trustees for
the first four years of the Oak Grove district at Valley Springs. Thirty years ago he became a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church and in politics he is a Republican. By diligence and enterprise Mr. and Mrs.
Lawry have improved their opportunities and they have become very substantial
citizens.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
935-936. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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