San
Joaquin County
Biographies
MRS. HATTIE E. RATHBUN
For thirty-eight years Mrs. Hattie
E. Rathbun has been numbered among the citizens of the Golden State, and for
the past thirty-two years has resided in San Joaquin County, during which time
her husband, Charles W. Rathbun, was actively connected with the educational
affairs of the county. She was born at
Fox Lake, Dodge County, Wisconsin, a daughter of Benjamin Franklin and Olivia
(Dale) Gibbs, both natives of New York, early settlers of Wisconsin. When our subject was five years old her
parents removed to Mason City, Iowa, where she was reared and educated. There were five children in the family: H. L. resides at Calistoga, California;
Eugene, deceased; Benjamin resides in Council Bluffs, Iowa; Hattie E. Rathbun,
the subject of this sketch; and Elizabeth.
The father passed away at the age of eighty-seven and the mother at the
age of sixty-seven.
On September 25, 1881, at Mason
City, Iowa, occurred the marriage of Miss Hattie E. Gibbs and Charles Wilbur
Rathbun, a native of Sparta, Wisconsin, born November 30, 1858, a son of
Eldridge and Lydia (Osborne) Rathbun, both natives of New York, who removed to
Wisconsin in frontier days. When Charles
W. was eleven years old the family removed to Mason City, Iowa. Eldridge Rathbun was a veteran of the Civil
War and lost his life in the service of his country during that conflict. Charles W. received a fine education in the
schools of Iowa and after graduation was engaged in teaching until 1884, when
the family removed to California, settling in Calistoga, where he was engaged
in teaching for five years; then they removed to Inyo County where he taught in
the Big Pine and Lone Pine schools. In
1890 they came to Lodi and for a number of years Mr. Rathbun taught at the Turner
and Franklin district schools. On account
of failing health Mr. Rathbun was obliged to give up his chosen profession and
took up carpentering and contracting in Lodi, which he followed until his death
August 11, 1911. Mr. Rathbun was a
Republican in politics and fraternally was a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World and the Maccabees of
Lodi.
Mrs. and Mrs. Rathbun were the
parents of seven children: Mary E. is a
teacher in the Lodi schools; Eldridge resides in Lodi, as does Mrs. Nora Brown;
Percy D. is employed in the post office at Lodi; Elizabeth, Mrs. Jensen,
resides in Loomis, California; Dorothy and Phillip W. are at home. The family resides at 125 North Hutchins St.,
Lodi, in the home built by the husband and father sixteen years ago. Mrs. Rathbun is a member of the Ladies of the
G. A. R. of Lodi.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1542. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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