San
Joaquin County
Biographies
AUGUSTUS PURDY
A vineyardist who has found in
farming and viticulture his best sphere of action and the source of his
greatest prosperity, is Augustus Purdy, the owner of a fifteen-acre vineyard
three miles east of Lodi. He was born
near Middletown, Orange County, New York, on June 2, 1861, a son of Isaac and
Julia (Miller) Purdy, descendants of an old New York family. Isaac Purdy was a carpenter, and also farmed
on a small scale in New York. There were
eight children in the family, as follows:
Amelia, George and Nancy, deceased; Hattie, Mrs. Wilson of Middletown;
Augustus of this review; Emma, Mrs. A. Lozier, of Middletown; Libby, Mrs. Simon
Bates, of Middletown; and Ella, Mrs. Kindred, of Stockton. The father lived to be sixty-seven and the
mother eighty years old.
Augustus Purdy received his
education in the public school, and helped in the support of his family until
he was twenty years old, when he left the parental home to look out for himself. He found employment with the New York,
Ontario & Western Railroad, and was foreman for a portion of the road on
the east slope of the Shawangunk Mountains. Many times it was necessary to rout the men
out at night to work on the road to protect it from the torrential rain
storms. Here Mr. Purdy worked for ten
years, but was then obliged to resign on account of his health.
On December 4, 1886, at
Washingtonville, Orange County, New York, Mr. Purdy was united in marriage to
Miss Jennie Bouton, also a native of New York, born
near Washingtonville, and a daughter of Shubal and
Charlotte (McElroy) Bouton. Her father was a stonemason by trade. He died in 1874. She was third in a family of four children of
this union, the others being Isaac, of New York, and Rebecca, deceased, and
Mrs. Mary Frathes.
Mrs. Purdy was educated in the public school at Washingtonville and at
Newburgh on the Hudson. After Mr. Purdy
resigned from his railroad work he rented a 150-acre farm, near Middletown,
which he operated for one year. He then
sold out his equipment and went to work for the railroad company in the machine
shop, but was obliged to give this up also. Then he went to Cornwall on the
Hudson and worked for the Orrs Mills poultry farm,
where he remained for one year, after which he worked one year for Mr. Stillman, the New York millionaire. Next he ran an exclusive boarding house and
summer resort on Storm King Mountain, and also ran a livery stable in
connection with this. In 1905 he came to
California and invested his savings in a ten-acre tract of land which was only
a stubblefield, lying east of Lodi about two and a
half miles. This he has developed into a
fine Tokay vineyard, and has added another five-acre piece adjoining; he has
built a good house and put in a good irrigation system with a four-inch pump
and a ten-horse power motor. Mr. and
Mrs. Purdy are the parents of one son, Carlos A., born in Lodi, who is
assisting his parents. Fraternally Mr.
Purdy was affiliated with the Red Men, No. 103, of Bloomingburg, New York. In politics he is a Republican.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George H., History of San
Joaquin County, California , Pages
1563-1564. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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