San
Joaquin County
Biographies
An enterprising citizen of Lodi
Eugene F. Nickel is the owner of an apartment house located at 17-1/2 West Elm
Street. He was born at Frankfort on the
Oder, in the province of Brandenburg, Germany, August 8, 1868, a son of Rudolph
and Augusta (Beiga) Nickel, both natives of
Germany. There were six children in the
family. Richard resides at Acton,
California; Olga, deceased; Hedwig, Mrs. Hilpert,
resides in Leavenworth, Kansas; Eliza, Mrs. Julius Woock,
resides in Lodi; Bruno, deceased; Eugene F. is the subject of this sketch. The father passed away at the age of
seventy-five, the mother surviving until she was seventy-one years old.
Eugene F. Nickel received his
education in the schools of Germany, and in 1885 accompanied his parents to the
United States and settled in Leavenworth, Kansas, where he worked for his
brother-in-law, Theodore Hilpert, in his grocery
store for two years. In 1887 with his
mother and brother Richard, he moved to California and settled at Acton. Here he homesteaded a tract of land, but was
later forced to relinquish his claim to it.
His residence at Acton covered a period of seventeen years, during which
time he engaged in mining and was road supervisor and mine recorder in the
Cedar mining district. In 1904 Mr.
Nickel came to Lodi, where he found employment with the Lodi Wine Company. He then established a wholesale and retail wine
business of his own in Lodi, where he successfully conducted shipping to the east
until 1912, when he sold out and opened a dry goods store at 17 and 19 West Elm
Street, which he conducted for two years.
On January 4, 1909, at Los Angeles,
Mr. Nickel was married to Miss Anna Schutle, a native
of Wilmington, California, a daughter of August and Dorothy (Lembke) Schulte, the former a native of Westphalia and the
latter of Mason County, Iowa. Mrs.
Nickel’s maternal grandfather, Jacob Lembke, a native
of Germany, came to California in an early day and settled at Wilmington, where
he acquired valuable property holdings.
Mrs. Nickel is the eldest of a family of seven children, the others
being Fred, John, Mrs. Ida Gallagher, Mrs. Irene Scheen
and Wilford, all residents of Lodi, and George,
deceased at the age of six month. Her
father is deceased, but the mother is still living in Lodi. Mr. and Mrs. Nickel are the parents of four
children, Theodore, Carl, Eugene and Herbert, and an adopted daughter,
Agnes After Mr. Nickel sold his dry
goods business he erected the Nickel Block, a two-story brick and reinforced
concrete building, 40 x 170 feet, at 17 and 19 West Elm Street, with stores
below and apartments above. In politics
Mr. Nickel is a Republican. Fraternally
he is a member of the Sons of Hermann Lodge of Lodi, and is a past president
and trustee of the Grand Lodge of California.
Mrs. Nickel is a member of the Parent-Teachers Association. The family are
members of the Lutheran Church of Lodi.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1552-1553. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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