San
Joaquin County
Biographies
ROBERT POWELL
A straightforward citizen who feels
a keen interest in all that pertains to the rapid and permanent development of
San Joaquin County Robert Powell has for more than thirty-five years been a
leader in the contracting and building industry of Stockton and tributary
country; he ranks today as the pioneer builder of the Gateway City. A native of California, he was born at Angels
Camp, Calaveras County, November 17, 1860, a son of William and Emma (Wilson)
Powell. His father was a pioneer of
California, having located here in 1849; he passed away when our subject was
thirteen years of age. Robert worked in
the mines and quartz mill in Calaveras County and meantime had learned the
carpenter’s trade. In the spring of 1883
he located in Stockton and worked at the trade of carpenter for two years, and
in 1885 became a contractor and builder.
Many of the first homes and stores now standing in Stockton were erected
under contract by Mr. Powell, and the picturesque old Mansion house on Victoria
Island in the Delta, built more than thirty-five years ago for Tom Williams, a
pioneer of the island section, was rebuilt by him. He supervised the erection of the Stockton
high school building, the San Joaquin Bank Building, the Episcopal Church, the
Christian Church, the Central Methodist Church, the Jewish Synagogue, the H. E.
Shaw business block, the Y. M. C. A. Building, the Belding block, Children’s
Home, and many imposing homes, as well as industrial and manufacturing
structures. The home of Harry Hammond,
editor and publisher of the Byron Times, at Byron, on the edge of the Delta,
one of the most attractive homes in that section, was a building achievement of
Mr. Powell. As a contractor and builder
he is well prepared to rank as a leader in construction work. He owns and operates a modern mill in
Stockton, located at No. 945 East Lindsay Street, where he manufactures
finished building products to meet all requirements. A specialty is made of turning out interior
and decorative effects for home buildings, offices, stores, banks and other
structures. Plans of architects are
given that personal supervision that insures its correctness as to
details. Mr. Powell employs a large
force of skilled workmen in every branch of the trade, each crew operating
under a competent foreman, thus insuring the carrying out of plans in a
representative manner. Stockton is proud
of the achievements of this leader of construction work because his endeavors
always stand for meritorious projects.
He was a worker, with others, for the splendid Borden Delta road
constructed across the so-called island sections between Stockton and the
Byron-Brentwood-West Side country, a highway that attracts hundreds of tourists
to these interesting sections of central California. The proposed $4,000,000 Stockton Harbor
project, now in its substantial development stages, is also back by Mr. Powell,
because he believes that such a giant development will add many thousands of
people to the steadily growing population of his home city and cause a greatly
increased impetus in home construction and the building of more industrial
plants, stores and warehouses; that it will mean a new era of substantial
improvements for Stockton.
Mr. Powell’s marriage united him
with Miss Josephine Bateman on August 27, 1893.
Miss Bateman was born in Stockton and is a daughter of that well-known
pioneer, Dr. E. B. Bateman. Fraternally
Mr. Powell has been identified with the Knights of Pythias for many years.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
419-420. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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