San
Joaquin County
Biographies
THOMAS J. RAINES
A familiar figure in the business
circles of Lodi is Thomas J. Raines, the genial and accommodating yard foreman
for the Fuller Lumber Company, a position he has occupied for the past nineteen
years. Mr. Raines is a man of
enterprise, and has been engaged in steady and worthy endeavor ever since
boyhood. Like most successful men, he
began with small capital, and his own character and ability are the sources of
what he has gained. He was born on the
Holly Oak ranch at Napa, California, September 12, 1873, a son of Harry and Marilla (Mathews) Raines, natives of England and Canada,
respectively. In 1869, Harry Raines came
to California and settled in Napa County, where he farmed for four years. Then he removed to Ontario, Canada, and
engaged in farming until 1884, when he returned to California and settled near
Vallejo, where he owned and conducted a ranch.
Two years later, in 1886, the family came to San Joaquin County,
settling in the vicinity of Clements; and the father rented 385 acres, which he
farmed to grain for five years. Then he
moved back to Vallejo, and there rented a farm.
Returning to San Joaquin County, he purchased the Baird ranch north of
Clements, the ranch of 385 acres which he had formerly leased. He farmed this place for six years and then
sold it and moved to Lodi. There he
bought a home on South School Street, where he lived until his death, May 18,
1922. There were four children in the
family: Alvin, deceased at the age of
forty-nine; Nellie, Mrs. Drake; Thomas J., of this sketch; and Arthur E.,
employed in the navy yards at Vallejo, California.
In 1904 Thomas J. Raines entered the
employ of the Young-Smith Lumber Company in Lodi, and was soon made foreman of
their yards; later when Mr. Young purchased Mr. Smith’s interest, Mr. Raines
continued in the same capacity; and when, in 1910, Mr. Fuller bought the lumber
yards, Mr. Raines again retained his position.
On August 18, 1908, in Jackson,
California, Mr. Raines was married to Miss Cora Wrigglesworth,
a native of Amador County, California, a daughter of George and Augusta
(Hubble) Wrigglesworth, the former a native of New
York and the latter of California.
Grandfather Hubble came to California in 1849, from Illinois, and
settled in Amador County, where his daughter Augusta, as well as his
granddaughter, Mrs. Raines, was born.
Mrs. Raines is the youngest in a family of three children: Orville, residing in Oakland; George, and
Cora, now Mrs. Raines. Cora Wrigglesworth began her education in the grammar schools of
Amador County, and later attended school in Berkeley, California. She was engaged in teaching school for eleven
years, three of which were spent in the schools of Lodi, just previous to her
marriage to Mr. Raines. Her father died
at the age of seventy-four, and her mother at fifty-four years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Raines had one son, George, who
died at the age of three months. In
politics, Mr. Raines is a Democrat.
Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masons and the Eastern Star of
Lodi; while Mrs. Raines is past worthy matron of Lodi Chapter, Order of Eastern
Star.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1043. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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