San
Joaquin County
Biographies
LUVIGI SOLA
Well known in connection with
agricultural interests, especially that of grain raising,
is Luvigi Sola, who for the past eleven years has been raising immense
quantities of grain and whose present ranch comprises 1,045 acres, thirteen
miles southeast of Stockton on the Mariposa Road. He was born at Villa Faletto,
in the province of Piedmont, Italy, on October 6, 1855, a son of Andria and Domenica (Alimano) Sola, farmers
in Italy and the parents of ten children, of whom Luvigi is the sixth. Luvigi Sola was twenty-five years old when he
resolved to come to America, so he made his way to Havre, France, and arrived
at New York on Christmas Day, 1880.
Eight days later he went to Vincent, Ohio, where he remained three
months and in all that time found only six days’ work on a farm. In March, 1880, Mr. Sola made his way to
California, where he had relatives. He
went to work on a farm at seventy-five cents a day, then on railroad
construction at Lockeford at one dollar per day. Five years before this, his brother Peter,
accompanied by another brother, Batista, had come to California and worked on
farms in the vicinity of Acampo. Batista
Sola returned to Italy after three years in California, and in 1883 Peter Sola
removed to Tulare, where he took up government land about two miles north of
Delano in Tulare County.
On December 25, 1886, at Tulare,
Peter Sola was married to Miss Lucille Zebena, born
at Mosola, in Cuneo, Italy, July 1, 1868, daughter of
Joseph and Marie Zebena, farmers, both now
deceased. They had three children, Mrs.
Sola being the youngest and the only one who came to California. Mr. and Mrs. Sola had three children: Domenica, Mrs. John
Panero, has five children and is now farming the old
home place at Tulare; Andrew married Miss Lucille Rae Serretti
of Modesto, and they have two children and he is associated with our subject in
farming; Peter is also farming with Mr. Sola.
On June 5, 1894, Peter Sola passed away on the home place at
Tulare. Mrs. Sola remained there after
her husband’s death and Luvigi Sola had also a homestead of 160 acres near
Delano. Luvigi Sola received his United
States citizenship papers at Visalia in 1888, and proved up on his land. In August, 1900, Luvigi Sola and Mrs. Peter
Sola were married, and besides rearing his brother’s three children, they have
five children of their own: Louis,
Joseph, Mary, Lucy and Lawrence.
Twenty-three years ago Luvigi Sola settled in San Joaquin County,
locating near Lockeford and farmed the Priest ranch for three years, raising
large quantities of what on this 1,140-acre ranch. Since then he has farmed the Wash, Tucker,
the Allen and the Commins ranches. In 1911 he purchased his present ranch of
1,045 acres, formerly known as the McDougall tract. Besides farming this large acreage, he leases
large tracts of land in the district which is entirely devoted to raising wheat. With the latest improved power machinery,
including a Holt seventy-five horsepower tractor and a Harris gasoline combined
harvester, Mr. Sola and his sons are able to do most of the work and they
operate 1,500 acres in all. Mr. Sola and
his family enjoy the confidence of the business community and he has found that
in the West his hope of benefiting his financial condition has been realized,
for here he has secured a good home and gained a comfortable competence.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1636-1637. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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