San
Joaquin County
Biographies
EDWARD H. NOACK
Commercial activity finds a worthy
representative in Edward H. Noack, president and manager of the Monarch Foundry
Company, of Stockton, California. He was
born in San Francisco on March 9, 1875, and as a child lived in Stockton. During the year of 1883, his parents removed
to Walla Walla, Washington, and our subject became a
messenger boy with the Western Union Telegraph Company. During the summer of 1894, the family left
Washington with a four-horse team and wagon and drove to Stockton, leaving on
June 12 and arriving in Stockton on July 31.
His first work in Stockton was in a photograph gallery operated by Frank
Elliott. Then he became an apprentice to
learn the pattern-maker’s trade with the Globe Iron Works, and later with
Matteson & Williamson; from September, 1898, to September, 1900, he worked
at the trade in Sacramento with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Returning to Stockton, he entered the employ
of J. M. Kroyer, who had just started the Sampson
Iron Works, and he got out the first patterns for their gas engine. In September of 1906, in partnership with R.
J. Quinn, Charles Foreman and George Snell, he started the East Street Foundry
Company, and in 1907 the business was incorporated as the Monarch Foundry
Company and moved to the present location on East Oak Street and Sacramento
Street. In 1912, R. L. Quisenberry bought the interest of George Snell. Later, Quinn and Foreman sold out to the
Monarch Foundry Company, and about 1916 Quisenberry
sold his interest. The present officers
of the company are Edward H. Noack, who has been the president since 1912 and
manager since its incorporation in 1907, and who holds the majority of the
stock; and L. L. Ventre, the secretary of the
corporation. The company started with a
very small capital, paid $35 per month rent for the East Street building, and
employed from twelve to twenty-five men, whereas they now employ from 125 to
150 men. Their original building on East
Oak Street was 75 x 100 feet. Additions
have been made until the buildings now cover an area of 150 x 300 feet, with a
separate machine shop of 50 x 100 feet, additional property was purchased, and
the plant now covers half a block.
During 1915 an electric furnace for making steel castings was installed,
and Mr. Noack spent some time throughout the East making a thorough study of
the steel business. In 1908 the company
began the manufacture of centrifugal pumps.
Among their other products are gray iron castings, electric steel
castings, and general pumping machinery; they are the sole manufacturers of the
Monarch Ames deep-well, double-acting plunger pumps, and their trade covers the
entire Pacific Coast and extends into Mexico.
During the World War, Mr. Noack was
very active in all bond drives at times being away from business an entire
week. He is president of the Stockton
Merchants, Manufacturers and Employers Association and an active member of the
Stockton Rotary Club. Fraternally he is
a member of the Charity Lodge of Odd Fellows, Stockton, and is a member and
trustee of the Stockton Lodge, No. 218, B. P. O. E.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1079. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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