San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN RAGGIO
The time will never come, it is to
be both hoped and expected, when posterity will fail to honor such a pioneer as
John Raggio, the banker, broker, timber-man and former Calaveras stage
operator, whose friends among his contemporaries were legion, and who to know
was to esteem and love. He was president
of the Commercial & Savings Bank of Stockton when he died at the Lane
Hospital in San Francisco on June 9, 1921, after an illness of a couple of
months. John Raggio was born at El
Dorado, now known as Mountain Ranch, in Calaveras County, east of San Andreas,
July 16, 1860. In his boyhood days he
drove a butcher wagon over a route covering Mokelumne Hill, Rich Gulch, Glencoe
and West Point in Calaveras County, and later he conducted a stage service
between Valley Springs and Angels Camp.
Those were during the days of the picturesque six-horse stages which
carried bullion from the mines to the nearest railway stations, and when the
stage operators had to outguess daring hold-up men. It came about, therefore, somewhat naturally
that Mr. Raggio was a man of untiring energy and varied enterprises. He accumulated vast holdings of land in
Calaveras County, near his native heath, and throughout his long and successful
business career he remained loyal to his home county, contributing to the
upbuilding of its community life and varied industries. A keen business man, he met with great
success in all his undertakings; and more than twenty-five years ago he organized
the Calaveras County Bank.
On July 1, 1903, he organized the
Commercial and Savings Bank of Stockton, beginning in a small way in the Hale
Building on the south side of Main Street, between Sutter and San Joaquin
streets. He took Edward F. Harris, then
a young businessman, in with him, and Mr. Harris continued to be long
associated with him in business affairs.
In 1914-15, Mr. Raggio erected the ten-story building in which the
present Commercial and Savings Bank is located, and it was a source of just
pride to him that he gave Stockton its highest skyscraper. He did this very naturally, too, for as a man
of vision and foresight, he predicted a great growth for Stockton, and his
faith was exemplified in undertaking this huge building responsibility at a
time when many keen conservative businessmen of the city felt that the time had
not arrived for such a venture. But Mr. Raggio’s faith was steadfast, and up went the ten-story
building, now a monument to his vision, his faith, and his enterprise, and a
structure of which all San Joaquin County is proud.
Mr. Raggio was also a director of
the Tuolumne County Bank and was heavily interested, as a director, in the
Argonaut Mining Company of Jackson, which operates one of the largest
gold-mining properties in the state.
Among his activities and business enterprises were stockraising,
farming, brokerage, land and timber holdings; and in
earlier days, as has been stated, staging.
He was more or less of a really self-made man; and it is not surprising
that he was generous in aiding worthy young men in whom he detected character
and ability. It is known that he
financed the college education of several young men, and put others in a way to
great success in business and professional life. He was a keen observer and reader of
character; and when once impressed with any young man, he recognized no limit
in making it possible for him to attain a high place in whatever field of
activity he desired to prepare for. Mr.
Raggio, on the other hand, was charitable in the extreme in his judgments and
intensely loyal to his friends; hence he was beloved by all who knew him best,
and he enjoyed the fullest confidence and deepest respect by all with whom he
had any dealings in his multiplicity of activities.
When Mr. Raggio closed his arduous
career, he was survived by a widow, Mary Gibbons Raggio, a daughter of Dr. W.
E. Gibbons, and two children: a son,
Jack Raggio, a graduate of the University of California and now connected with
the Commercial and Savings Bank, and a charming daughter, Miss Lois Raggio.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
595. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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