San
Joaquin County
Biographies
NELSON QUENELL
Among the prosperous farmers and
dairymen of the New Hope School District of San Joaquin County is Nelson
Quenell, who conducts a dairy of forty cows on an eighty-acre ranch seven miles
northwest of Woodbridge. A native of
Alexandria, Ontario, Canada, he was born October 24, 1864, a son of Donald and
Anna (Cartner) Quenell,
both natives of Canada, and farmers all their lives. The father, who was of French descent, passed
away at the age of ninety-four, and the mother, of Scotch descent, at the age
of seventy-two, while the grandfather, Donald Quenell, lived to be 102 years
old. Donald and Anna Quenell were the
parents of six children: John, deceased;
Agnes; Alexander, deceased; Margaret, deceased; Richard, deceased; and Nelson,
of this review.
Nelson Quenell received a grammar
school education, and when he was sixteen years of age ran away from home. He made his way to Port Arthur on Thunder
Bay, at the head of Lake Superior, and worked on the construction of the
Canadian Pacific Railroad; for five years he worked his way westward, to
Regina, and then left the company and came to British Columbia. He was married in North Dakota, at St.
Thomas, and again went to work on the Canadian Pacific, continuing till the
spring of 1886, when he returned to St. Thomas, and located a homestead of
160-acres of land near Langdon, North Dakota, proved up on it and remained there
for five years. Here Mr. Quenell took
out his first citizenship papers; he received his final papers in Stockton,
California. In 1890 he removed to Palmero, California where he found employment on the
Southern Pacific Railroad for a short time; then he came to Stockton and worked
for Angus McKinnon, the building contractor, for five years, and during that
time helped to put in the concrete work on El Dorado Street on the waterfront. He was then employed as engineer on the pile driver
on Grand Island until 1904. He then
began farming, first for five years on Grand Island, and then at New Hope
Landing for another five years. He was
engaged in dairying until November, 1922, at which time he sold out and located
in Woodbridge where he is now engaged in merchandising.
On August 24, 1885, in North Dakota,
Mr. Quenell was married to Miss Mary McLean, a daughter of Angus and Isabelle
(McKinnon) McLean, the former a native of the Highlands of Scotland. Her father left Scotland and settled near
Toronto, Canada, where he farmed until his death at the age of fifty
years. The mother, also born in
Scotland, passed away recently at the age of seventy-four. They were the
parents of nine children who grew up:
Flora, Mary (Mrs. Quenell), Catherine, Christine, Annie, Sarah,
Margaret, Daniel, and Isabelle, who is a trained nurse living in San
Francisco. Mary McLean was born near
Paisley, Canada, where she was educated in the public school. Mr. and Mrs. Quenell have a family of eight
children: John M., in Los Angeles;
Angus, at Thornton; Agnes, Mrs. Maher, of Sacramento; Catherine, Mrs. Henry
Thompson, of Thornton; Edna, Mrs. George Woods, of Los Angeles; Ethel, Mrs.
Edison, of Woodbridge; Rena, Mrs. Edward Beckwith, of Sacramento; and Roy, at home. They are also raising a nephew named Morman Hall, and have taken care of him since he was a
baby. He is now seventeen years old and
they are educating him as their own child.
There are four grandchildren.
John Quenell has two children, Robert Nelson and Dorothy; Mrs. Ethel
Edison has one daughter, Elizabeth; and Angus Quenell has one daughter, Ethel
Marian. For four years Mr. Quenell was
school trustee on Grand Island; for six years he served as school trustee of
the New Hope School in Thornton District; and then for one year he served on
the school board of the Ray District.
Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias,
No. 106, of Stockton; Mrs. Quenell was a member of Cortland Lodge of Pythian Sisters until the lodge was disbanded.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1541-1542. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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