San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WALTER E. MAESTRETTI
Among the younger generation of
ranchers in the Elliott district is Walter E. Maestretti, who is making a
decided success in his agricultural activities.
He is a Californian by birth, born at San Francisco on December 3, 1890,
a son of Emilio and Media Frances (Orr) Maestretti, the former a native of
Canton Ticino, Switzerland, and the latter of San Francisco, California. The father, Emilio Maestretti, was born in
1863 and when sixteen years of age came to California and began work as a
sheepherder; later he went into the sheep business for himself. In 1893 the father bought 160 acres at Clay
Station, Sacramento County, and engaged in general farming, specializing in the
raising of turkeys on a large scale.
Emilio Maestretti married Media Frances Orr, a daughter of Andrew
Younger Orr, a native Scotland, who came around the Horn as a sailor with
Captain Sir Herbert Austin. Landing in
San Francisco, he immediately went to the mines at Camp Seco; later when he
returned to New York he enlisted and served in the 142nd New York
Volunteer Infantry, and being a baker by trade he followed it throughout the
Civil War. They are the parents of seven
children: Walter, E., the subject of
this sketch; Emma, Andrew, born at Clay Station July 1, 1895; George resides in
Sacramento; Josie is the wife of Andrew Aldrich; Alfred, living in Sacramento;
and Wesley.
The education of Walter E.
Maestretti was obtained in the district school near Clay Station and when he
was twenty-two years old left home and settled in the Elliott section of San
Joaquin County, where in partnership with his brother Andrew, he farms a
144-acre tract of land. Besides their
farming activities, they own a Holt seventy-five horsepower tractor, a Holt
harvesting outfit, and a full line of grain farming implements and are kept
busy a great portion of the time doing tractor contract work throughout the
county.
Mr. Maestretti entered the service
of his country during the World War in December, 1917, and was sent to Camp
Lewis and placed in the Ninety-first Division, Fifth Battalion, Company Fifteen
of the One Hundred and Sixty-sixth Depot Brigade, but on account of illness was
unable to leave Camp Lewis and in January of 1918, was discharged from the
service and returned to his home in Elliott.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1481. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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