San
Joaquin County
Biographies
GEORGE W. LUCAS
A progressive land owner of San
Joaquin County, who has done much to further the development of the resources
of the state, is George W. Lucas, a native of Amador County, where he was born at
Puts Bar, near Comanche, on May 15, 1862.
His father, Ralph Lucas, came to California from Missouri in 1849, and
mined on the Feather River. Later he
settled down near Lancha Plana, where he acquired a small ranch, married Miss
Rebecca Potter, and brought up a family of ten children: John L., still living at Amador; Andy,
deceased; George, of this review; Ralph, of Clements; Robert, deceased; Sarah,
of San Francisco; Ellen, now Mrs. Smallfield; James, living at Stockton; and
William and Nels, both deceased.
George W. Lucas had the usual
educational advantages enjoyed by the boys of his day and also took up the
study of bookkeeping. He remained at
home until he was past twenty-one, helping to support the large family, and
then for three years worked for wages in the service of a Mr. Van Zandt. He next worked in the sawmills, in the
mountains, for about one year, and after that worked for four years in Butte County,
helping to handle lumber at the mills, at a flume that carried eighty thousand
feet of sawn lumber each day down to Chico.
He then came to Clements and in partnership with his brother, Ralph,
pursued farming four miles northeast of Clements, on the river. They operated a part of the Kissell place, and at one time farmed about 600 acres of
land. This partnership was continued for
a number of years.
In 1897 George W. Lucas married Miss
Jennie V. Howard, a native of San Joaquin County, where she was born on the old
Howard ranch, and the daughter of Daniel and Clara L. (Flanders) Howard,
well-known pioneers. She attended the
Washington school and was a society favorite when she met Mr. Lucas. Twelve years ago he bought 326 acres on the
Mokelumne River, about six miles to the northeast of Clements, and put in nine
acres of bottom land to alfalfa. He also
has a family orchard, forty head of cattle, and twelve head of horses. Two children have blessed the union of Mr.
and Mrs. Lucas: Harvey Howard and Una Doris. Three
years ago his home burned to the ground, and then he erected a fine new home,
of one and one-half story, on the site where the former residence stood. Mr. Lucas is a Democrat. He is a member of the board of trustees of
the Washington district school, and for four years has been the director of the
board. He belongs to the Odd Fellows of
Clements, and has passed through all the chairs there; and he has also gone
through all the chairs of the Clements Lodge of the Modern Woodmen of America. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lucas are members of the
Rebekahs at Clements and have passed through all the chairs.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1220. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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