San
Joaquin County
Biographies
BYRON A. NIXON
In these days of building progress
and development, and with the increasing demand for lumber and building
materials, it is a great satisfaction to do business with a firm that believes
in keeping up-to-date along building lines.
The Nixon Lumber Company, owned and operated by Byron A. and E. A.
Nixon, is such an institution, which has been an invaluable factor in adding
building and industrial developments in Lockeford and vicinity. He was born in Van Buren County, Michigan, on
May 25, 1857, a son of Amos and Lucy Ann (Stocking) Nixon, both descendants of
old Michigan families.
Byron A. Nixon attended the grammar
schools of Van Buren County and when eighteen years of age began to make his
own way in the world. His father being a
farmer, he learned considerable about the agricultural business, but farming
did not particularly appeal to him. From
1877 to 1878 he was in Montana and upon his return to Michigan settled in
Antrim County and built the first store building in Bellaire, the county seat
of Antrim County; later he engaged in the merchandise business in Bellaire,
which occupied him for twelve years, when he sold out and went to Hillsdale,
Michigan, where he was employed by the Campbell Lumber Company, remaining with
them for twelve years. Deciding to cast
his lot in California, he spent one year in Santa Cruz in the real estate
business; then went to Trinity County and spent a short time in the quartz
mines of that county. After a short stay
in Chico, Butte County, with the Diamond Match Company, he was transferred to
Woodland, California, by the Diamond Match Company, where he remained two
years; and then was with Stevens Construction Company for four years. Removing to Stockton in 1914, he began work
for the Hatch Lumber Company, this position occupying a period of nearly five
years. In the month of September, 1918,
Mr. Nixon came to Lockeford and purchased the business of the Lockeford Lumber
Company, which he has built up to its present proportions. Besides handling all kinds of rough and
finished lumber, he carries a full line of coal and cement.
Mr. Nixon’s marriage occurred at
Unadilla, Livingston County, Michigan, on December 7, 1886, and united him with
Miss Ethel Adora May, a native of that state and a daughter of W. J. and Lydia
(Durkee) May, her father a blacksmith and farmer by occupation. Mrs. Nixon received her education in the
public schools of Michigan and later was graduated from the Mancelona Normal
School, after which she taught for four years previous to her marriage to Mr.
Nixon. They are the parents of two
children: Mrs. A. H. Meier, of Chico,
has three children; Burgess A. also resides at Chico, and is with the
Sacramento Northern Electric Company. Politically
Mr. Nixon is a Republican and fraternally belongs to the Masons of Hillsdale,
Michigan, and Scottish Rite Masons of Lansing, Michigan. Mr. Nixon’s operations are of a constructive
nature and he has given freely of his time and means toward the development of
his locality.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1622-1623. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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