San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JAMES B. PRENTICE
For over a half century James B.
Prentice has resided in San Joaquin County and is one of the best known
contracting plumbers of the Lodi section of the county. He is a native of Australia, being born in
Melbourne, on October 12, 1857, a son of Thomas and Christian Prentice, both
natives of Scotland. The father was a
steam engineer by trade and removed from his native country to Australia, where
he resided until 1861, when he came to California in a sailing vessel with his
mother and sisters, Mrs. Christina Eichelberger, and
engaged in mining two years. While
working in the mines the father contracted mountain fever from which he never
fully recovered and which caused his death at the age of forty-seven years, and
the mother survived him about ten years. James B. and Thomas, Jr., were the only
children in the family.
James B. Prentice received his
education in the public schools of Stockton, attending the old Vineyard school
and Jefferson school, and at the age of seventeen took up the plumbing trade,
serving an apprenticeship under Dixon brothers.
His first work was in the north wing of the state asylum; he then went
to San Francisco, where he entered the employ of Dixon Bros., and remained there
for four years; then for two years he worked for Mr. Lane and in 1880 returned
to Stockton and established a plumbing business of his own, remaining there for
sixteen years. In 1896 he removed to
Lodi, where he purchased six and one half acres lying just south of the city
limits on South School Street. On this
property he built a house and established his plumbing business, where he has
resided ever since.
The marriage of Mr. Prentice
occurred at Stockton on January 25, 1885, and united him with Miss Martha Post,
a daughter of William Post. Her father
was a hoisting engineer employed in the mines at Railroad Flat, and here Mrs.
Prentice was born, reared and educated; later the family removed to Modesto,
and there the father passed away at the age of seventy-five, while the mother
preceded him about ten years. Mr. and
Mrs. Prentice are the parents of twelve children, six of whom are living: Martha, Mrs. Call of Lodi; Grace, Mrs. Biggs
of Fresno; James M. is also a subject of this history; Harry; Harriett is a
student in high school; and Kenneth. In
politics Mr. Prentice is a Republican, and fraternally he is a member of the W.
O. W. of Lodi. Mr. Prentice was once an
active member of the Knights of Pythias and has passed through all the chairs
of the order; he was also a charter member of Truth Lodge, I. O. O. F., Stockton.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1251. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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