San Joaquin County
Biographies
DAVID P. MARTIN
DAVID P. MARTIN is a native
of Wetzel County, West
Virginia, where he was born
January 12, 1836, his parents being Felix S. and Eliza (Harrison) Martin, both
natives of West
Virginia. Felix
S. moved to Ohio with his family, where he remained twelve years.
About 1851 he returned to Virginia, where they made their home till 1855, when he moved
to Lee County, Iowa; seven years later he crossed the plains to California, arriving in this valley September 22, 1862. For
almost ten years he was toll collector at the toll gate on the Waterloo road, where he died October 16, 1881, at the age of
seventy-four years. Mrs. Martin died June 16, 1853, in West Virginia. She was the mother of ten children, four sons and
six daughters, as follows: Glorvina, wife of L. Herbert: she died in this
county, in July, 1862, leaving one daughter; Mary Belle, married and living in
Kansas; Amanda, married, residing in San Jose, California; D. P., the subject
of this sketch; Richard Harrison, residing in Missouri; Margaret Clinton, who
died at the age of four; Benjamin F., residing in Tacomo, California; Charles
L., a resident of San Joaquin County; Eliza Virginia, married and residing in
San Francisco; and Anna, the youngest, who died in Virginia, in 1855.
David P. Martin remained with his parents
up to the year 1855, when he went to Missouri, and acted as foreman or overseer on a farm, where a
number of slaves were employed in the raising of grain, tobacco, etc. This
position he occupied for five or six years, at the end of which time he came to
California, in the year 1862. During his residence here he has
been occupied in ranching most of the time. The place where he now lives was
bought in the fall of 1867: it consists of 160 acres, besides 193 acres he owns
in partnership with his brother, Charles L. Martin.
Mr. Martin was married May 14, 1876, to
Miss Carrie Day, daughter of T. B. Day, of this county. She was born in Wisconsin, but came to this State with her parents in 1851,
when she was a mere child. Their family consists of five children: Maud May,
born March 21, 1877; Bertha Blanch, January 8, 1879; Ethel, July 7, 1881;
Thompson D., June 27, 1883, died July 3, 1887, at the age of four years; and
Vesta B., born January 18, 1886.
Mr. Martin has been a member of the
Masonic fraternity since 1868, belonging to Valley Lodge, No. 135, at Linden.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 379-380. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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