San Joaquin
County
Biographies
JAMES C.
SOMMERS
A
popular official of the progressive Stockton Chamber of Commerce who has proven
himself to be doubly efficient because farseeing and particularly wide-awake,
is James C. Sommers, the manager of the traffic
department of that well-managed organization. He was born in Hope, Kans., on
September 13, 1890, and attended the public schools at Ellsworth and Abilene in
that state. He entered the employ of the Union Pacific Railroad at Ellsworth,
and continued in various positions with that great company until he came
further westward in 1912. At San Francisco he engaged with the Southern Pacific
Railroad Company, and then he removed to Sacramento, in order to continue
Southern Pacific work there. In each of these cities he established a
reputation for both knowing the field of railroad endeavor and problems, and
for working unselfishly to give the public that satisfaction which comes only
when the public realizes the great service to civilization constantly performed
by the railroads.
In 1916 Mr. Sommers came to Stockton to assume
the responsibility of assistant traffic manager with the Chamber of Commerce of
this city; and the next year he was appointed manager of the traffic
department. He joined the 118th Corps, U. S. Engineers, and he saw ten months
of service on the front in France. After the armistice his company ran the
first train into Verdun. He thus returned to the United States much richer in
experience of a kind likely to be helpful in his particular line of work.
The traffic department of the Chamber of Commerce covers in its supervision
and activity a wide and most useful field. It establishes rates with the
railroad companies for the local manufacturing companies, handling the checking
of their accounts and filing any claims against the transportation companies;
while the community work includes the adjustment of rates for local merchants
on freight to and from Stockton; and it also includes the adjusting of rates
for competitive centers, making them to conform with local rates. It confers
with projectors of new industries, contemplating the possibility of locating in
Stockton, and by going over the ground thoroughly with the parties interested,
endeavors to show the advantages of making Stockton their headquarters. It also
handles the loss and damage claims of local shippers--a very important branch
of the Chamber of Commerce work which has come to the fore in recent years. Mr.
Sommers has been able repeatedly to give entire satisfaction
to local merchants and manufacturers having such claims. In this ambition he
has been assisted to a great extent through his years of invaluable experience
with the great railroad companies, whose ways he understands, and with whom he
has the greater influence because he knows how to go about it to give
satisfaction to both sides, and thus to bring them together in harmonious working.
Mr. Sommers is a live wire in the American Legion of
Stockton, belonging to Karl Ross Post; and he is also a popular member of
Stockton Lodge No. 218, B. P. O. Elks.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham,
George H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page 1487. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
©
2012 V. Gerald
Iaquinta.
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