San
Joaquin County
Biographies
ROBERT T. MELTON
For twenty-two years Robert T.
Melton was actively and prominently identified with farming interests of San
Joaquin County, during which period he made substantial contribution to the
agricultural development of this part of the state. He was born on a farm in Monona County, Iowa,
November 20, 1862, a son of Jesse C. and Sarah (Nutt) Melton, the former a
native of Alabama, while the latter was born in Indiana. In 1875 the family started for California and
they were nine days in reaching Stockton, California. On arriving in the Golden State they settled
in Stanislaus County, where for many years the father followed the occupation
of farming. Elisa Nutt, the maternal
grandfather of the subject of this review, had crossed the plains to California
with ox teams in the early ‘50s acquiring a large acreage near Ripon, on the
Stanislaus River. He also brought with
him to California a horse, which was still living at the time the Melton family
arrived here.
Robert T. Melton remained upon the
home ranch in Stanislaus County until he was twenty years of age and then came
to San Joaquin County, afterward renting a part of the G. W. Trahern ranch, five miles west of Ripon. He raised grain on an extensive scale, having
from 1,000 to 2,000 acres planted to wheat, and later he purchased 1,000 acres
of the land, which he subsequently sold.
In 1904 he rented the ranch and moved to Stockton, where he has since
resided, devoting his attention to the buying and selling of real estate, in
which he has been very successful. He
has negotiated many important realty transfers and when the San Joaquin
Irrigation District was being formed he took an active part in promoting the
sale of the bonds and contributed in large measure to the success of the
enterprise. He is a director of the City
Bank of Stockton and is also a director in the Pacific National Fire Insurance
Company of Sacramento, and helped to organize the Bank of Ripon, serving as a
director for many years.
Mr. Melton married Miss Mary Silvis,
a native of Pennsylvania, and they have become the parents of two
children: Oscar T., sealer of weights
and measures for San Joaquin County; and Elsie Eva, a graduate of the
University of California, class of 1922, now engaged in teaching in Merced
County. Mr. Melton has always taken a
deep interest in civic affairs, especially in the promotion of educational
standards, and served as school trustee of the Ripon district. He joined the Ripon Lodge of Odd Fellows in
1884 and is a member of Stockton Lodge, No. 218, B. P. O. Elks.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
840. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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