San Joaquin County
Biographies
GEORGE S. & ELMER H. LOCKE
GEORGE S. LOCKE, of Elliott
Township, one of the substantial men of San Joaquin County, is a native of
Langdon, New Hampshire, born October 30, 1830, the youngest of four children of
Luther and Hannah (Willard) Locke. The founder of the family in this country
was Deacon William Locke, who was born in Stepney Parish, London, England,
December 13, 1628. He came to Massachusetts in the ship Planter (Nic. Yrarice,
master), in 1634. On the 25th of December, 1655, at Woburn, he
married Mary Clarke, daughter of William and Margery Clarke, of Woburn. She was
born at Watertown, December 20, 1640, and died at Woburn, July 18, 1715. Deacon
Locke died at Woburn, June 16, 1720. His direct descendant, Calvin Locke,
grandfather of our subject, was born at Ashby, New Hampshire, June 18, 1765. On
the 25th of February, 1796, he was married to Sarah Jewett, who was
born at Rindge, August 19, 1763. She was the daughter of Stephen Jewett, of
Rindge, who married Miss Bancroft.
Luther Locke, father of our subject, was
born in Sullivan, Sullivan County, New Hampshire, December 6, 1796. When a
young man he started in mercantile pursuits in Langdon, in October, 1818, and
after the first year took into partnership his brother Calvin. The latter,
being of a speculative turn of mind, got the firm into outside ventures, so
that they were ruined financially. Luther Locke was twenty years paying up the
debt thereby incurred. Having saved up $800, he came to California, July 1,
1855, with his son D. J., when he returned with his wife. He lived with his son
Elmer, in San Joaquin County, but afterward took up part of the land where
Lockeford now stands. He gave the land to build the first hotel, called the
Lockeford House, and built the first permanent dwelling in the town, and on its
second floor kept the first store in the place, the goods having been brought
up the Mokelumne on the first steamboat to navigate the river, the Fanny Ann,
September, 1862. His son, D. J. bought his land, and went in with him in the
store. They remained in partnership until the father’s health failed, and the
the (sic) latter sold out to his son D. J.
Luther Locke was a Congregationalist in
religion, and was one of the founders of the church at Lockeford. His children
were four in number, as follows: Luther Franklin Locke, who was born November
3, 1820, and now lives at Nashua, New Hampshire. He was graduated at Middlebury
College, Vermont, in 1845, and at Cambridge Medical College in 1849, taking up
dentistry as a profession to pay his way through college. He became a
physician, but was so successful as a dentist that he did not follow up the
practice of medicine as a profession. Dean Jewett Locke was the second son (see
his sketch elsewhere, under the name of Mrs. Delia M. Locke). Elmer Hall Locke,
the third son, will be hereafter mentioned at some length. The fourth son,
George S., is the subject of this sketch. Luther Locke, father of the above,
died at Lockeford, July 12, 1866. George S. Locke, when ten years old, worked
out in haying at $2 a month, and followed farming most of the time until
twenty-one years of age. In the summer and fall of 1846 he went to a school
kept by his brother, D. J., at Pawtucket, Massachusetts, for five or six
months, working for his board. He also worked at dentistry with his brother at
Hashua. He next went one term to Reed’s Ferry, to a normal school started by
Russell, of school-reader fame. There he got a teacher’s certificate, and
taught one term of school. He then went back to the farm with his mother, and
took charge of the work there until he had reached the age of twenty-one years.
Having determined to go to California, he left Langdon for New York, and on the
6th day of December, 1851, sailed from that port on the steamer
Cherokee at 2:30 P.M. He landed at Chagres on the 18th of
December, went up the river to Crucez, where he arrived on the 20th,
and from there walked to Panama on the 21st. He became sick with
Panama fever, and was confined there for some days. On the 27th he
bought a ticket for San Francisco by the steamer Golden Gate, the second trip
she made on this side. The vessel touched at Acapulco, and he spent the 2d of
January, 1852, ashore there. On the 10th of January he landed at San
Francisco, and at once took a boat for Stockton, where he arrived on the 11th,
his ticket having cost him $10. Being sick and unable to get word of his
arrival to his brothers, he went to the hospital and remained there for two
weeks, when his brother, having learned of his arrival, came to the hospital
and took him out to his home on the ranch where Lockeford now is situated. He
was so ill as to be unable to perform any labor until about the 1st
of April, then went to work for his brothers. He did the cooking, while D. J.
hauled garden products to the mines. Eggs brought $3 a dozen, tomatoes 12 to 16
cents a pound, and other things in proportion. Two years later he commenced for
himself, and made money teaming, selling salmon, etc. He located about 135
acres of land, a part of his present home ranch, and embarked more extensively
in farming. After the death of his brother, Elmer, who had built a part of the
present residence in 1855, our subject removed into it. He has added
considerably to his landed possessions, and his land about Lockeford is know
for its splendid soil. Besides grain farming, he has devoted considerable
attention to stock, and has been very successful in both lines. He paid taxes
this last year in five different counties.
Mr. Locke was married May 15, 1859, to
Miss Susan L. Hammond, who was born in North Abington, Massachusetts, January
13, 1839. She is an accomplished lady, and taught school in this county for two
years. Ten children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Locke, viz: Sarah A. J.,
born August 5, 1860; Elmer H., born October 22, 1862, died May 20, 1875; George
F., born August 22, 1864, died November 14, 1868; Wallace H., born May 8, 1867;
Amy, born February 4, 1869, died February, 1869; Lilla, born May 26, 1871; John
G., born September 20, 1873; Mertice, born June 4, 1876; Franklin H., born
August 5, 1878, and Alma G., born January 15, 1882, died December 2, 1882.
Mr. Locke’s life has been one of lessons
on the value of industry. When he was a mere boy of fourteen or fifteen he
learned value of putting his little savings out at interest, and when he came
to California he had saved up $100 of his own, which with $100 he borrowed from
his father was what he had to get to California and make his start with. He has
never engaged in more than one really successful speculation, and that was in
1862, when he and his brother D. J., Mr. Foster and others bought the steamer
Pert in San Francisco and brought it up to Lockeford, loaded with freight for
the mines, where it landed at the ferry on his ranch, April 5, 1862. The
Mokelumne River Navigation Company was formed with Mr. Locke as treasurer. The
boat was run successfully during this spring, but Jerry Woods, of Woodbridge,
had a bill passed by the Legislature granting him the right to build a bridge
without a draw, across the river at that place, which headed off all navigation
any farther than that point. Governor Leland Stanford signed the bill. This
steamboat venture cost Mr. Locke about $3,000 in losses. He became a
stockholder in the Lodi mill, loaned the company $10,000, and bought the
property in when it was sold at sheriff’s sale, and ran the mill about a year.
He has been a stockholder in the First National Bank of Stockton since its
organization, is a member of the Congregational church, and furnished the
largest portion of the money to build the church.
ELMER
H. LOCKE, deceased, was born in Langdon,
New Hampshire, December 24, 1825. He was well educated, being a graduate of
Bridgewater Normal School, and taught two terms of school at Cape Cod,
Massachusetts. He then attended the Rensselaer Institution, Troy, New York, and
was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Natural Sciences, September 29,
1848. The California fever seized him with sufficient force to determine his
joining the throng of emigration pouring in that direction in 1849. Having made
his preparations to go, he attended Father Taylor’s church in Boston on the
night of February 25, intending to start the next day. Delays occurred, and it
was the 1st of March when the ship Sweden, on which he was a
passenger, sailed out of Boston harbor. An immense crowd was at the dock to see
them off, and Father Taylor made a farewell speech. On the 3d of August, 1849,
the vessel arrived in San Francisco harbor. In his diary, Elmer H. Locke speaks
of it in these terms: “We came to the entrance of the harbor at 2 o’clock. No
pen can describe our feelings at the time, and what followed for the remainder
of the day. Received a letter from mother. Left San Francisco for Stockton
August 20. Stopped in Stockton till the 28th. Went to Brooklyn City,
on the Mokelumne. Commenced a garden on the 2d of September.” On the 18th
of September he writes that he has dug $20 in gold, but has been sick most of
the time with dysentery. His garden was right at the foot of Butte Mountain,
below Mokelumne Hill, on the north side of the river. On the 15th of
October he makes entry in his diary as follows: “Recovered from dysentery, and
while yet weak started on a prospecting tour for the Forks about the 1st
of October. Went up North Fork, crossed over and came down South Fork. Was gone
four days. Felt in excellent health. Started next day for the Calaveras, to
trade with the Indians. Got three miles, and on the 6th of October
got accidentally shot in attempting to draw a rifle pistol to shoot a raven
which was flying close over my head. Ball entered the right side, passed
through the body, and was taken out at the left thigh, a distance of twenty-two
inches.” Dr. D. J. Locke, who had come across the plains as physician for the
Boston and Newton company of emigrants, heard of the accident to his brother,
and proceeded to Mokelumne Hill, being two nights and one day on the road from
Sacramento. He himself was taken sick, and he then sent to Sacramento and got a
friend named Loring (who also came out in the Boston and Newton company) to
come to Mokelumne Hill to nurse him and Elmer. Loring also became sick, and
Elmer, who was very weak, waited on his two companions in misfortune, with his
own knees held up by a bar run across between two forked sticks. Loring died
there, but the Locke brothers recovered and went to Sacramento. There the Locke
brothers and Mr. B. Burt built a house, of poles and oak shakes made by
themselves, on L street, between Ninth and Tenth, and in the following spring
they went to Mississippi Bar, where they ran a store. Elmer came down to San
Joaquin County in 1851, and settled a little northwest of Lockeford, where
George S. Locke now lives. He and his brother D. J. fenced in about 300 acres
of land on the Mokelumne river bottom, and in the summer of 1851, D. J. was up
in the mines at Downieville, where he made considerable money, while Elmer
remained on the ranch and cut about 200 tons of hay that season. In the spring
of 1852 they planted a vegetable garden between two sloughs on the ranch, on
the lower side of the present road. When George S. got well he did the cooking,
as stated in his sketch, while D. J. sold the vegetables in the mining camps,
and Elmer went up to Sacramento, where he was engaged in the poultry business
the summer of 1852. He went to Tulare County, prospecting, and located a ranch
in the Four Creek country. Even at that early day, he planned to run water over
his land there to make it more productive. He eventually left there, came back
to the present location in San Joaquin County, and built part of the house in
which George S. now resides. Here he died on the 28th of June, 1858.
He was a straightforward, enegetic man (sic), and was well respected by those
who knew him. The Locke family are closely identified with the early settlement
of that portion of San Joaquin County, and indeed have been prominent in its
history since the pioneer days.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 495-498. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Genealogy Databases