San
Joaquin County
Biographies
PETER P. SCHMIDT
A steadily progressing, successful
man of affairs, influential both in and out of San Joaquin County, is Peter P.
Schmidt, now a resident of Santa Cruz, who came here in 1881 from Rio Vista,
Solano County, and was employed in Mr. Landgraff’s
shop at Tracy. About two years later, he
left this place and located on the Sacramento Road, in a blacksmith shop at the
Five-Mile House above Stockton, where he was occupied until 1887. He then returned to Tracy and acquired the
shop at the corner of Seventh and Central streets, where for twenty years he
plied his trade. Mr. Schmidt worked very
hard, saving what money he could, and put his savings into real estate. He bought some property in Tracy; and in 1909
rented his shop, and the following year erected the Hotel Francis, at the
corner of East Seventh and Central avenues.
Where once stood the old blacksmith shop, there are now eight stores and
the Masonic Temple. Today this is among
the best income properties in the city.
Mr. Schmidt was born in Holstein,
Germany, on January 31, 1858, in the village of Skjarback,
and grew up in the home of his parents.
At the age of fifteen he left home.
Boarding a west-bound steamship, he reached New York in seventeen days,
and then came on by rail to San Francisco.
He married Miss Eva Huck, the eldest and gifted daughter of the
pioneers, F. W. and Margaretta Huck; and eight children blessed their
union. Margaret is the wife of Ray Colomberd, and resides at San Jose. Jesse served in the United States Army, and
is at present the manager of the P. P. Schmidt ranch near Tracy. Frank is married and resides at Manteca. Eva is the widow of Mr. Ahrendes,
and the mother of two children.
Christina is Mrs. George King, and resides at Tracy. Elsie, Batilda and
Julia are the youngest.
Mr. Schmidt was made a citizen of
the United States at Fairfield, Solano County, in 1880. He now owns forty-eight acres of choice
irrigated land two miles east of Tracy, and also owns property at Santa Cruz,
where his family has resided since September, 1921. He also has desirable residence property in
Tracy, although himself residing at Santa Cruz.
He served as a director of Division No. 5, West Side Irrigation
District, until he resigned on removing to Santa Cruz.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1144. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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