San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WILLIAM SCHLOSSMAN
A deep student of political economy
who has become a strong advocate of irrigation, and has thereby wielded an
enviable influence for the public good, is William Schlossman, president of the
board of trustees of the West Side Union High School. He was born in North Riga, on the Baltic, on
June 22, 1866, and owning in part to the foresight of his father and mother,
received what was then called a good common schooling; and after graduating
from the Gymnasium at Riga, he entered the College at Dorpat,
in 1884, majoring in economics. Owing to
family reverses, however, he was forced to abandon his college course; and when
death took away his mother early in 1887, he entered the employ of a large
wholesale and importing house of raw-silk stock and other products of the East
Indies, China and Japan, and for two years he was engaged in the purchasing
agent’s department. He made two trips to
the Far East by way of the Suez Canal.
In February, 1889, Mr. Schlossman
landed at San Francisco, after a boisterous trip around the Horn, intending at
first only to make a short visit and then to return to his post as purchasing
agent; but after a careful survey of conditions in San Francisco, he resolved
to tarry indefinitely. In April of that
year he pushed inland into the San Joaquin Valley, and with the exception of
five years, from 1902 to 1907, when he was engaged in real estate in San
Francisco, he has made Tracy his headquarters and home. The fire following the earthquake of April
16, 1906, swept away his fortune; and in 1907 he removed to San Joaquin County
for good. He took up construction work
with the engineers’ department of the Western Pacific, and was for five years
in charge of the Stockton-Livermore division.
In 1908 he acquired his ranch of 160 acres, and he has since devoted a
part of his time and energy to agriculture.
Naturalized at Stockton by Judge J.
H. Budd in 1896, since which eventful moment he has worked for better
citizenship under the banners of the Republican Party, William Schlossman has
made a worth-while contribution to the building up of the West Side. He has been particularly active in laboring
for better schools, and were it not for such men as the late Dr. J. S. West,
one of the broad-minded and progressive veterans who helped to lay the
foundations of this region, George J. Luhrsen, and
our subject, the movement in 1910 for a West Side Union high school might never
have taken place. Now the section enjoys
an institution said by many to be at least fifteen years ahead of the average
high school to be found in other like localities in the state. Mr. Schlossman has served as president of the
board of school trustees since 1917.
At San Francisco, on February 16,
1903, Mr. Schlossman was married to Mrs. Matilda Gerlach, who has resided in
California since 1880; and one child was born to them, Elsie. She is the wife of Arthur F. Michel, and they
have two children, Billy and Florence, and reside at Oakland. Mrs. Schlossman’s
maiden name was Matilda Grell, and she was born in
Saxe-Meiningen, being a daughter of Christian and
Katherine (Lammerhard) Grell,
her father being a prominent mason and storekeeper at Saltzungen. Her mother died when she was only thirteen
years of age. She was married to her
first husband, William Gerlach, July 7, 1881, and became the mother of four
children by her first marriage: George
is a rancher residing in the West Side Irrigation District; Ford is in Napa;
Rudolph died when thirty years of age at Tracy; Frieda is the wife of Francis
Jack Norman and resides in Oakland.
Since 1904, Mr. Schlossman has been a member of the I. O. O. F., and is
a past noble grand of the Sumner Lodge of Tracy, and only recently he resigned
the office of secretary, after five years of continuous service, whereupon, on
the evening of July 16, 1921, he was presented with a beautiful silver tea
service as token of the high esteem in which he was held by his fellow Odd
Fellows. He is also a member and a past
officer of the Encampment. Mr.
Schlossman was secretary of the Tracy Chamber of Commerce for ten years. He resigned that position in 1910, in order
to take up the secretaryship of the Banta-Carbona Irrigation District, which comprises 18,000 acres.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1019. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases