San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JAMES PATRICK NOLAN
An enterprising, progressive and
highly successful vineyardist to whom much credit is due for his contribution
to the advancement of husbandry in California, is James Patrick Nolan, living
two miles to the northwest of Acampo, and widely and favorably known throughout
San Joaquin County. He was born in
County Wicklow, Ireland, on January 19, 1871, the son of Edward and Anna
(Murray) Nolan, the former a shoemaker by trade, who had to work so hard for a
living that our subject was denied the opportunity to attend school in
Ireland. In 1885, however, he came out
to the United States, for a larger schooling in the New World, and ever since he
has made his own way. He migrated west
to California, and came early to the vicinity of Acampo, where he has continued
to make his home within a short distance from where he first worked. His father never came to America. His grandfather and grandmother were Michael
and Bridget (Russell) Nolan; and there were two uncles and aunts, brothers and
sisters of his father, who came out to the United States. One of these, James G. Nolan, reached
California in 1858, and died near Acampo on October 28, 1903. Michael came to the United States and was last
heard from in Pennsylvania. Mary married
and became Mrs. Coleman, and she died at Santa Rosa about sixteen years
ago. Annie also married, and as Mrs.
Crowley lived at Terre Haute, Indiana.
An uncle, James G. Nolan, came to America and pushed on as far west as
St. Louis. There he took charge of a
band of cattle, to be driven to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After that he drove four mules to Salt Lake
City. In 1858 he came overland to
California and settled at Cucamonga, in San Bernardino County, and there he
built the first house occupied by a white man.
After working only two months on this house, he started north with John
Dunn as a co-partner and fellow-traveler.
They reached French Camp, and there dissolved partnership; and when they
divided their capital, each took a half of twenty-five dollars. Uncle James then came to Stockton and
accepted a job at $25 per month tendered him by John Welch, and this job he
kept for two years. In 1862 he purchased
160 acres about two miles northwest of Acampo, and this came to be known as the
old Nolan Home Ranch. On November 2,
1862, James G. Nolan married Miss Kate Burns, who had come to America from
Ireland in 1854, and had settled for awhile in New York, finally reaching
California on October 9, 1861. Mr. Nolan
was a Democrat, but he cast his first vote in 1864 for the illustrious Republican,
A. Lincoln.
When James P. Nolan came to Acampo,
he worked for three years for his uncle, in order to get a good start in
farming, and then he rented a grain ranch of 500 acres two miles from his
uncle’s, where he followed agricultural pursuits for five years. He next bought forty acres of the old Nolan
ranch, for which he was required to pay only seventy dollars an acre, and later
he added another ten acres. Three years
ago Mr. Nolan refused $13,000 for the ranch.
The entire ranch was open land when Mr. Nolan bought it, and since then
he has set out all the vineyards and done all of the improving himself; and he
has just completed an attractive ranch-house at a cost of $9,000. The ranch now consists of fifty acres of
bearing vineyard, twenty-eight acres in bearing Tokays and eight acres in
two-year-old Tokays, five acres in Cornichons, and
one and one-half acres in Zinfandel grapes.
The balance will soon be developed to vineyard.
At Lodi on September16, 1894, Mr.
Nolan was married to Mary Rebecca Phillipi, a native of Pennsylvania and the
daughter of Isaac and Tilly Phillipi.
Her father was a millwright, carpenter and farmer, and came to
California when she was two years old.
He settled in 1873 in Sacramento County, where he cultivated several
hundred acres planted to grain. He then
removed to Shasta County and farmed for a couple years, and so it happened that Mrs. Nolan went to the Shasta County
schools. The family then made a trip to
Oregon and Washington, and returned later to San Joaquin County. Locating at Lodi, he lived there for about
five years, associated with Mr. Van Gelder in the nursery business. In 1892 Mr. Phillipi moved to Acampo, and
here Mrs. Nolan lived until her marriage.
He attained his sixty-second year, survived by his devoted wife, who was
seventy-one years old when she died. Mr.
Nolan’s father, on the other hand, died in Ireland, and he was also sixty-two
years old; and his mother also passed away in Ireland, leaving a family of six
children, among whom Mr. Nolan was the fourth in order of birth. Mr. and Mrs. Phillipi had twelve children,
and of these only three are now living:
Mrs. Nolan; Bessie, who has become Mrs. C. W. Thompson of Acampo; and
Carrie, who became the wife of Harry Engels of Lockeford. Five children were born to Mrs. and Mrs.
Nolan. Anna M. died in 1916. Maurice I. Nolan entered the United States
service during the World War, on August 28, 1918, and was sent to Camp Lewis,
where he was placed in Company L, 75th Infantry, 13th
Division, and was made a corporal, and on February 1, 1919, he was honorably
discharged from the Presidio at San Francisco, when he returned home and
resumed the avocations of peace. James
G. was married January 28, 1922 to Miss Nancy M. Baker, a graduate nurse from
St. Joseph’s Hospital at Stockton.
Carolyn is a graduate nurse from St. Joseph’s Hospital at Stockton, and
was married, February 4, 1923, to Mr. George L. Chapdelaine,
a vineyardist at Lodi and Woodbridge. Frances lives at home. Mr. Nolan is a Democrat. He belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America
and is affiliated with the Lodi Lodge.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
625. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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