San
Joaquin County
Biographies
PATRICK LYNCH
A prominent pioneer rancher of San
Joaquin County, Patrick Lynch is now living retired at his home, 720 East
Lindsay Street, Stockton, while his son, James P. Lynch, is active in the
management of their large estate of 400 acres, highly productive and
developed. He was born in County
Fermanagh, Ireland, April 25, 1850, near the village of Lisnaskea, next to the
eldest of a family of nine children born to Peter and Mary Ann (Carroll)
Lynch. The Carroll family came from
County Monaghan, Ireland, and for many generations both the Lynch and Carroll
families had been farmers. Grandfather Lynch was an extensive stock and grain
farmer in the old country.
Patrick Lynch received a fairly good
education in his native country and remained at home assisting his parents in
rearing and caring for the large family of children until he was twenty-one
years old. Taking passage on the
Adriatic he arrived in New York twelve days later and immediately started for
California and upon arriving in Stockton he began work on the farms of that
section, and during the threshing season worked in the Cowell district. He spent several seasons on the west side and
in 1886 made a purchase of 120 acres in what is known as the black lands, five
miles southeast from Stockton; this he eventually sold to R. E. Wilhoit. This property was formerly owned by a Mr.
Brown and was a desolate, unimproved portion of the county and at that time
there were no roads, no schools, nearer than French Camp, and the outlook for
advancement and prosperity in that section was extremely meager. However, Mr. Lynch had a vision of the time
when this would be a productive and prosperous community, had the place under
plow, and soon after his first purchase he made a second one of 240 acres,
formerly the Austin ranch, ten miles from Stockton, and here Mr. Lynch has
continuously made his home, having added 160 acres adjoining. In 1889 Mr. Lynch constructed a system of
levees which are still in fine repair, showing his thoroughness in all that he
has undertaken. His ranch now consists
of 400 acres, which is highly developed and in splendid productive condition,
the chief crops at the present time being alfalfa and grain.
On November 25, 1880, Mr. Lynch was
married to Miss Ella McCarty, a native of County Down, Ireland, who came to
California in 1870. She passed away in
Stockton March 6, 1923. She had two
brothers, William and James McCarty, who reside in Stockton. Mr. and Mrs. Lynch were the parents of five
children: Agnes J. and Mary C. are at
home; James P., the second child, married Miss Margaret McCartan,
of Belfast, Ireland, who came to California in 1906, and they have one son,
James Joseph. Since 1915, James P. Lynch
has had the active management of the home ranch and has made a splendid success
of it. Dr. William P. J. is a graduate
of the medical department of the University of California, and with his wife
and one daughter, Patricia Ellen, resides in Stockton, where he has become
prominent in medical circles as a physician and surgeon. Nellie M. died aged about twenty years. Two years ago Patrick Lynch moved to
Stockton, where he owns a home at 720 East Lindsay Street, content to spend the
remainder of his days in this thriving and beautiful city of the San Joaquin
Valley. He became a U. S. citizen in
1880 and in matters of citizenship he is progressive and takes a helpful part
in promoting the progress of the county which has been his home for a half
century, being numbered among its honored pioneers.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
895-896. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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