San
Joaquin County
Biographies
ERNEST W. LEFFLER
Numbered among the prominent
citizens and representative farmers of San Joaquin County is Ernest W. Leffler, who was born here when this was a frontier region,
giving little promise of development and improvement which were so soon to
transform it and which in the course of years would make it one of the best
districts of the great commonwealth. He
was born near Stockton on August 17, 1861, a son of George J. and Fredricka (Hecker) Leffler. The father,
George J. Leffler was a native of Stuttgart, Germany,
and came to America in 1849, settling first in New Orleans, Louisiana, and in
1851 came to California and settled ten miles northeast of Stockton and here
homesteaded a quarter-section of land.
There were seven children in the family:
George J. Jr., John F., Henry G., Francis J., Bertha, Mrs. Henry Rohrbacher, a widow residing in Stockton; Ernest W., the
subject of this sketch, and Ernestine, Mrs. John Guggolz
of Lodi. The father passed away at the
age of sixty-four in 1874, the mother surviving him until she was seventy-five
years old, dying in 1901.
Ernest W. Leffler
received his education in the Live Oak district school and attended the
Stockton Business College in the ‘80s.
He remained on the home ranch with his mother until her death, he and
his brother Francis J. leasing and running it.
After the mother’s death the estate was divided among the children, our
subject receiving as his portion, one-quarter of the ranch; he then leased his
sisters’ portion of the farm for a few years, and then bought it, as well as
his brother’s holdings. This home place,
settled by his father in 1851, was the home of the first Tokay vineyard planted
in the Lodi district. The father
experimented with some fifteen varieties of grapes to prove which were the best
adapted to the soil and climatic conditions, the Tokay taking precedence over
the other varieties. His vineyard
consisted of ten acres.
The marriage of Mr. Leffler occurred in Stockton on August 16, 1890, and united
him with Miss Hattie M. Mason, a daughter of Major and Sarah (Elliott)
Mason. Mrs. Leffler
was born in Arizona and came to California with her parents when she was only a
babe, her parents settling in the Waterloo section where they farmed a half
section of land to grain. She was
educated at the Delphi school and later attended the Stockton Business College,
when it was in charge of Dr. F. R. Clarke.
Mr. and Mrs. Leffler first lived on Norton
Lane; then moved to the old home place on the Eight Mile Road, about ten miles
northeast of Stockton. Mr. Leffler has added to his portion of the estate left him by
his parents until he now has 186 acres, ninety-four acres of which is in
vineyard; fifty acres are in bearing vines and forty-four in two year, three
year and four year old vines of different varieties. About thirteen years ago, Mr. Leffler bought an eighty-acre piece of land between his
residence and the old home place. Mr.
and Mrs. Leffler are the parents of three sons: Melvin F. entered the U. S. Army in July,
1917, in Battery C, 143rd Field Artillery. He was sent to the Presidio for a short time
and then to Camp Kearney where his regiment was trained. In July, 1918, he went to France, and his regiment
trained there at Camp De Songe, but never got into
action. They had been training about six
weeks and were just preparing to take their place in the front lines, when the
armistice was signed. He returned to the
United States in December, 1918, and was discharged at the Presidio January,
1919. He was married at Sacramento on
August 3, 1920, to Miss Bertha Kinchen, a native of
Texas, a daughter of J. B. Kinchen, a stockman who
had moved to Stockton. They are the
parents of one child, Rita Lorraine.
Wilbur C. served in the U. S. Navy; Dewey E. is the youngest. The three sons all reside on the old home
place and run it. Their fruit is shipped
through the Blackland Fruit Growers Association, of
which they are members. In politics Mr. Leffler is a Republican and fraternally is a member of the
Modern Woodmen of Lodi.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
479. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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