San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOSEPH A. SILVER
A leading cement contractor of
Stockton, known throughout San Joaquin County for the high grade of his work,
Joseph A. Silver is a native son, born at Santa Barbara on March 17, 1883, his
parents Frank and Carmelita (Lopez) Silver, being well-known pioneer
settlers. It was necessary for him to go
to work at the early age of twelve and while working on the Potter Hotel, Santa
Barbara, he became interested in the steamfitter’s trade, which he learned
under Henshaw & Buckley, San Francisco, and helped put in the Key Route
power plant. However, he quit the trade
and took up cement work with Sorensen Bros., of West Oakland, and has been in
that business ever since. Notwithstanding
his youth he was made a foreman for this concern after two years, and he was
the youngest member of Cement Workers Union No. 19, of Oakland, at this
time. He was next with Lindgren &
Hicks of Berkeley, and while with them was foreman on the construction of the
following buildings: St. Mark’s Hotel,
Brunner Building, Bekins Van & Storage Company building, Melrose School,
Fourth Avenue power plant and as foreman for Dalzell & Brown worked on the
construction of the Stanford Museum for eighteen months. He also worked on the Humboldt Bank Building
and Balboa Building, San Francisco, and started the work on the Fairmont Hotel
there. From there he went to Reno,
Nevada, as foreman of construction for the buildings of the University of
Nevada.
In 1908 Mr. Silver started in
business for himself at Newman, California, and laid miles of sidewalks there,
the first to be put down in the town.
The following five years were spent with Trewhitt
& Shields of Fresno as foreman on all the large buildings erected by that
company, among them: the Godschalk Building, Matti Winery,
Delano school and many others at Fresno, and a large school building at Richmond,
California. Los Angeles was his next
location and there he was foreman for the Richards-Neustadt
Construction Company on the Eagle Rock School and the Occidental College
buildings. Finishing these large
contracts, he was for a year and a half at Visalia as foreman for M. Nelson,
completing a number of jobs in that locality.
While in Fresno he made a trip to the Imperial Valley to look for a
location, but gave it up.
Coming to Stockton in 1916, Mr.
Silver started in business for himself and since then he has been kept
extremely busy, handling the cement contracting on the following: mattress factory on East Weber Avenue, the
big garage at Oak and El Dorado streets, U. S. Garage on San Joaquin Street,
all of the cement work on the Stockton Mineral Baths, the finest piece of
cement work ever done in the county, Oranges Bros. Garage, the Georges Company
building on South Aurora Street, Tucker’s garages on American Avenue and Weber
Avenue, large walnut warehouse on Jack Tone Road, Superior Manufacturing
Building at Lodi, Hobbs-Parsons Produce House, three warehouses for the
Stockton Box Factory, concrete oil tank for the Stockton Brick Company, Gall
& Sons building, Tucker’s Garage, Zerwick’s
Apartments, Parisian Dyeworks, Dawson Storage Company
building, ninety bungalows in Tuxedo Park, eighteen bungalows in Yosemite
Terrace, the Test, Powell, Bachell, and Dr. Haight
residences, the cement work on the Dickenson residence, and a number of large
dairy barns in the county. His equipment
is the latest and most modern obtainable.
Mr. Silver was married at Oakland on
September 26, 1911, to Miss Florence H. Hastings, the daughter of Greene and
Sarah (Reavis) Hastings. Her father was a ‘49er, but returned east
again. Conscientious and thorough in
every detail of his work, Mr. Silver’s early training, combined with his own
initiative and industry, has given him a reputation
for high class work throughout the county, second to none. In fraternal life he is a member of Fruitvale
Aerie No. 137, of the Eagles, and the Builders Exchange, as well as the Chamber
of Commerce and the Merchants, Manufacturers and Employers Association.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1227-1228. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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