San
Joaquin County
Biographies
FRED J. SCHLEEF
A native son and lifelong resident
of California, Fred J. Schleef is an enterprising agriculturist and vineyardist
residing on his beautiful ninety-one-acre orchard and vineyard located on the Lower Sacramento Road one mile south of Woodbridge
and one and a half miles west of Lodi.
His undertakings have been unusually successful, and he is esteemed for
his co-operation with all movements for the good and advancement of his
community. He was born in San Francisco,
October 28, 1883, the son of John and Lena (Brack) Schleef, natives of Germany
and California respectively. The father,
John Schleef, was a young man when he left Germany for America. Arriving in California in 1863, he settled in
San Francisco, where he engaged in the wholesale merchandise business. The mother is a daughter of that sturdy
pioneer of 1849, Jacob Brack, whose interesting biography can be found on
another page of this work. They are the
parents of three children: Fred J., Anna
and Margaret. His parents are living
retired in San Francisco at present.
Fred J. Schleef attended the grammar
schools of San Francisco and the California School of Mechanical Arts; then
entered the University of California, where he studied hydraulic engineering,
but did not remain until he had graduated.
Removing to Lodi he farmed 750 acres of the Brack e state, which was
devoted to garden truck and grain farming and which engaged his attention for
eight years. He then went to Lathrop and
rented 726 acres, engaging in stockraising and dairying, having an average of
250 cows. Success crowned his labors and
industry until the great flood of 1909, which wiped him out completely, so that
he was compelled to abandon his dairy.
The next year, 1910, he returned to Lodi and built and developed the
James Henderson dairy at Brack Station, where he had 200 acres of land and
sixty head of Holstein cows; and he operated this dairy for six years. From 1913 to 1916 he was superintendent of
the Stockton and Mokelumne Ditch Company, and from 1916 to 1919 devoted his
entire time to the affairs of this company.
The marriage of Mr. Schleef occurred
in San Francisco, California, on April 5, 1918, and united him with Miss
Lillian Gerard, the daughter of James Steven and Annie C. (Penny) Gerard, and a
granddaughter of that old and prominent pioneer, John H. Gerard. She received her education in the schools of
San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Schleef are
the parents of one daughter, Jean Caroline.
In 1919 Mr. and Mrs. Schleef moved to their present home containing
ninety-one acres, eighty acres of which Mrs. Schleef inherited when her
grandfather’s estate was divided, this being a portion of the Gerard tract one
and a half miles west of Lodi on the Lower Sacramento Road, now entirely
devoted to young vineyard. Mr. Schleef
owns a five-ton and a two and a half ton truck, and engages in hauling building
material for the various contractors of Lodi.
In politics he is a Republican, and fraternally belongs to the N. S. G.
W. of San Francisco and the Elks, No. 218, of Stockton.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
992. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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