San
Joaquin County
Biographies
LARRY P. MAPLE
The name of Larry P. Maple is
inseparably interwoven with the history of frontier life and the suppression of
the Indians, first in Arizona and later in Wyoming, where he earned an
excellent record as a soldier and Indian fighter. He was considered the second-best rifle shot
in his regiment. He was born at
Irondale, Jefferson County, Ohio, on February 3, 1853, a son of Ezekiel and
Mary (Mapel) Maple, natives of Ohio and New Jersey
respectively. Ezekiel Maple was a
stockman and farmer, and engaged extensively in buying and selling stock, which
he shipped east to the Pennsylvania mountains. They were the parents of nine children: Sarah, Benjamin, William and James are
deceased; Kaziah resides in Iowa; George and Mary are
deceased; Larry P. is the subject of this review; and Oscar resides in
Washington. The father passed away at
the age of eighty-nine and the mother at eighty-five years of age.
Larry P. Maple began his education
in the grammar school of his native town and continued it at an academy near
there. When he was fifteen years old, he
learned the horse-shoeing trade, at which he worked for three years in Ohio and
at Pughtown, Virginia. When he was still
a mere youth he entered the 3rd United States Cavalry, the noted
regiment founded by Ethan Allen in Revolutionary days. He trained at St. Louis and entered the
company at Fort Yuma, Arizona, and was active in the suppression of the Apache
Indians in 1869. In 1870 the 5th
United States Cavalry relieved them and the 3rd United States
Cavalry was transferred to Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming, to suppress the
uprising of the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians.
Here Mr. Maple was in many encounters with the Indians. In one bush-whacking engagement he was
wounded in one arm, but was not incapacitated for long. His service in Wyoming covered three years;
then he was discharged. He helped to
build Fort Robinson, ninety-eight miles northeast of Fort Laramie; and served
for one season with Major North (known as “White Beaver” by the Indians) in a
company known as the Pawnee Scouts.
For a number of years Mr. Maple
engaged in buffalo hunting in the Northwest, selling the hides for from $1 to
$5 apiece. He then returned to
civilization, settling in Otoe County, Nebraska, where he bought a half-section
of land and farmed for ten years. He
then sold it and, removing to Nebraska City, became the exclusive agent for the
Standard Oil Company’s retail trade there, remaining for seven years. Then he removed to Puget Sound, Washington,
and entered the transportation department of the Puget Sound Interurban
Electric Railroad, remaining in that capacity until 1913, when he removed to
Lodi and purchased a ten-acre vineyard of eight-year-old vines about a mile and
three-quarters east of Lodi. Here he
built a house and has further developed the property with an irrigation system,
consisting of a four-inch pump driven by a ten-horsepower motor.
The marriage of Mr. Maple occurred in
Nebraska City on November 19, 1879, and united him with Miss Harriet Shuster, a
native of Van Buren County, Iowa, a daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Hayden)
Shuster, natives of Ohio and Kentucky, respectively, who were the parents of
seven children: Ella, Harriet (Mrs.
Maple), Louisa, Jacob, John, James and Myrtle, all residents of Nebraska City
with the exception of Mrs. Maple. Mrs.
Maple was reared and educated in Otoe County, Nebraska, for her parents had
removed there when she was a small child.
Her father lived to be eighty-three, and her mother is still living at
the age of eighty-six. Grandfather
Hayden lived to be 101-1/2 years old.
Mr. and Mrs. Maple have one daughter, Iva, now Mrs. Horace C. Mann, of
Stockton, and the mother of one child, Lorraine. Mr. Maple is a Democrat in politics. He is a Mason and Knight of Pythias of
Nebraska City, and both he and Mrs. Maple are members of the Eastern Star of
Nebraska City. Mrs. Maple is a student
of Christian Science.
Mr. Maple comes from a long line of
fighters. His great-grandfather was a
soldier in the Revolutionary War; his grandfather Maple was a commander of a
company in the War of 1812; he had four brothers in the Civil War, two of them
lost their lives in the terrible struggle; and he had three brothers-in-law in
the Civil War. His interest in his city
and county is that of a public-spirited citizen, and his co-operation can
always be counted upon to further any movement for the general good.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1199. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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