San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES R. SMITH
On the list of agriculturists in the
Escalon section of San Joaquin County appears the name of Charles R. Smith, who
resides on his home place of 136 acres, situated about eighteen miles southeast
of Stockton, being a portion of the 500-acre tract purchased by his father in
1874. He was born at Scottsville,
California, April 18, 1869, the youngest son of the late Charles Edward and
Isabelle (Robertson) Smith, the former a native of Maine and the latter of
Canada. The mother of our subject
accompanied her parents to California via Panama in 1853 and settled in Amador
County. Charles Edward Smith crossed the
plains in 1853 to California in search of gold.
Arriving in California he, too, settled in Amador County, and there he
met and married Miss Robertson; then he moved to Washington, California, where
he worked as a miner and also engaged in stockraising. Later the family removed to San Joaquin
County, where the father bought the property of Captain McQuien,
consisting of eight acres located near Woodbridge on which is a natural lake
known as Smith Lake. In 1874 he acquired
500 acres of land about eighteen miles southeast of Stockton, which he farmed
to grain, but the family always made their home on the ranch near Woodbridge. The father passed away at the age of
seventy-two years.
On September 28, 1898, at
Woodbridge, Charles R. Smith was married to Miss Caroline Matthews, born at
Pine Grove, California, September 26, 1875, a daughter of Dan S. Matthews, a
native of Indiana who later moved to Illinois and from there came to California
in 1874. Mr. Matthews was a freighter
from Whitmore’s Mill, Amador County, to Sacramento for many years; later he
removed to San Joaquin County and engaged in farming on Roberts Island for a
number of years. He passed away at
Sacramento in 1915. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
are the parents of eight children: Helen
M. is a graduate of the Western Normal School in Stockton and the Stockton
Commercial College, and during the World War served for eighteen months in the
office of the War Risk Bureau in Washington, D. C.; she is now holding a fine
position in Stockton; Isabelle C.; Charles H.; Albert M; Cyril W.; Philip E.;
Estella N.; and Janice. Helen and
Isabelle Smith are members of Stockton Parlor, N. D. G. W., and Charles H. is a
member of the De Molay Order in Stockton. Mr. Smith is a Mason and Mrs. Smith and two
of their daughters are members of the Eastern Star Lodge. Mr. Smith has devoted much of his time to the
advancement of educational matters and is now serving as a director of the
Escalon Union high school. His political
support is given to the Republican Party and he has always taken an active part
in community interests.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1497. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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