San
Joaquin County
Biographies
NATHANIEL HOWARD LOCKE
An enterprising and successful
rancher and stockbreeder, worthily representing a very thorough-going pioneer
who stood for great things in pioneer days, is Nathaniel H. Locke, the third oldest
in a family of thirteen children of Dean J. Locke, who was born April 16, 1823,
at Langdon, Sullivan County, New Hampshire, and whose sketch also appears in
this work. Nathaniel H. Locke was born
at Lockeford, July 9, 1859, and there spent his boyhood, attending school there
until he entered the San Jose State Normal School, from which he was graduated
in 1880. Following his graduation, he
taught school for a number of years in Calaveras, Marin, and San Joaquin
counties. Mr. Locke still owns a portion
of the old home place and in addition some 300 acres situated on the Mokelumne
River, his holdings amounting to over 500 acres. The Kerr ranch of 300 acres, purchased in
1911, has been developed into a splendid stock ranch, and here Mr. Locke
engages in the breeding of fine Jersey dairy cattle. Recently, he has leveled twenty-five acres of
rich bottom land, which he has set to pears.
This is only a beginning, as Mr. Locke intends to enlarge his pear
orchard from time to time. Mr. Locke’s
ranch was known in early days as the “Rancho Rio De Los Mokelumnes,”
on which is the camp site of Captain Fremont on the night of March 25, 1844,
when he was on his way south to fight the Indians, an account of which is found
in the diary of the famous captain, paying tribute to the beauty and picturesqueness of this particular spot.
The marriage of Mr. Locke occurred
on Christmas Day, 1885, and united him with Miss Lucinda M. Clapp, born at
Wilmington, Massachusetts April 24, 1863, a daughter of Noah and Louise Clapp. They are the parents of six children as
follows: Chester C. died in 1918; Lottie
C. is Mrs. Tip Anderson, residing on her father’s place; Alma C. is Mrs. Arthur
C. Ambrose, a geologist for the United States Government, located at
Washington, D. C.; Howard C. resides at Lockeford on a stock ranch; Myrle C. is the wife of Capt. P. J. Clowry
of Modesto; and Nathaniel C. resides on a ranch near Lockeford.
Mr. Locke has been in the stock
business since 1887. He is among the
leading stockmen of the state, and today owns the choicest herd of pure-bred
Jersey cattle. His stock comes from the
“King’s Valet,” imported from the Jersey Islands, a grandson of “Financial
King,” also imported, and the herd bull of John D. Rockefeller at
Tarrytown. His “King’s Valet,” together
with the heifer “Empress’ Lass,” won the grand championships at the
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition; and whenever he has exhibited his dairy stock
they have won their share of the prizes.
He is an exhibitor each year at the State Fair. According to tests made by the Milk
Producers’ Association, Mr. Locke’s herd led in tests made for butter fat, and
for the month of February, 1922, in a “cow-testing record,” Mr. Locke had the
winner, a cow giving an average of seventy-six pounds of butter fat during the
month; and in January, 1923, a cow gave ninety-one pounds of butter fat. His dairy stock has been in great demand
throughout the country; and he exports to the Sandwich Islands, to Mexico, and
to most of the western states of the Union.
Fraternally, Mr. Locke has been a
member of the Odd Fellows Lodge of Lockeford for many years. He belongs to the Encampment; is a Patriarch
Militant, Canton Ridgley; and is also identified with the Modern Woodmen of
America, enjoying in the circle of each of these well-known fraternities an
enviable and deserved popularity. San
Joaquin County may well be proud of the invaluable contribution made to its
permanent growth and real progress by such citizens as Mr. Locke and his
family.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
609. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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