San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES CLAY LITER
One of the representative
businessmen in the city of Lodi, San Joaquin County, is Charles Clay
Liter. He was born in Lafayette,
Missouri, March 27, 1884, a son of Charles and Kate M. (Biggerstaff)
Liter, the former a native of Illinois and a farmer who lived to be sixty-seven
years old, while the wife and mother passed away at the age of
twenty-seven. There were five children
in the family: William C., Finley F.,
Mary Lillian, Claude Albert and Charles Clay, the subject of this sketch. Charles Clay Liter received his education in
the grammar and high schools of Blackburn, Missouri, and at Brown’s Business
College at Kansas City, Missouri, and at the age of nineteen was well equipped
to enter the business world. After
finishing school he owned and conducted a butcher shop at Blackburn for two
years; then he removed to Fort Worth, Texas, where he operated a transfer
business for three years; then he removed to Oklahoma and worked at McAlester
and Muskogee for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for three years. While at Muskogee, within three months’ time,
he was promoted from the position of agent to assistant manager; he then came
west to California and was the agent for the same company for the following
five months. From 1912 to 1915 he was a
tea and coffee salesman for a Fresno company; then was transferred to Oakland
in the same capacity for the same company where he remained for the next five
years. In January, 1920, he arrived in
Lodi in search of a location for an electric appliance store, but was
unsuccessful; however, he rented a furnished room and began to sell vacuum
cleaners; the following May he secured a small store building at 10 North
School Street and put in a stock of electrical appliances. He rented a place of business from the
blueprints and upon completion of the building moved into the Gilbeau Building
in November, 1921, where he built up a fine growing business in electrical
supplies. In January, 1923, he sold this
business to the Mercer Electric Company and continues with them.
In Blackburn, Missouri, on October
11, 1905, Mr. Liter was married to Miss Edna A. Watson, born at Miami,
Missouri, a daughter of Benjamin and Sallie Watson. Mr. and Mrs. Liter have two children: Mary Estelle and Martha Louedith. Mr. Liter is a Republican in politics and
fraternally is a member of the Eagles.
He is a member of the committee appointed to reconstruct the electrical
construction ordinance for buildings in the city of Lodi; he is also an
executive on the Lodi playground committee.
He was instrumental in establishing the Exchange Club in Lodi and was
its vice-president during 1922. He and his
family are members of the First Christian Church of Lodi, where he is a teacher
in the Bible school. Mr. Liter is a
public-spirited citizen, a friend of education and promoter of general
progress, and enjoys the thorough confidence of his fellow citizens.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1480-1481. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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