San
Joaquin County
Biographies
FRANK SORTER
Numbered among the well-known
vineyardists is Frank Sorter, who is located on a twenty-acre vineyard on
Almond Avenue, south of Lodi. He was
born at Dundee, Michigan, in the Lake Erie country, on July 16, 1868, a son of
Andrew and Martha Sorter. The father was
a farmer in Michigan and lived to be fifty-three years old, and the mother
reached the age of sixty-five, both passing away in that state.
When Frank Sorter was eighteen years
old he left the parental roof and started to make his own way in the
world. He went to Burt County, Nebraska,
in the spring of 1886, where he found employment on a farm and later farmed for
himself. Seven years later he leased
eighty acres on the Omaha Reservation, where he raised grain and corn for seven
years. Next we find in on the prairie
lands in Thurston County, breaking the virgin soil. In 1900 he went to Box Elder County, Utah,
and bought forty acres from the Bear River Water and Irrigation Company. Here he remained seven years, and his
principal crops were sugar beets, potatoes and alfalfa. On February 14, 1907, he landed at Los
Molinos, Tehama County, California, bringing his stallion and brood mares with
him from Utah. Here he purchased eighty
acres of fine river bottom land for which he paid $100 per acre, and his crops
were alfalfa, grain and hay. He further
improved the place with a fine house, and within four years time he sold the
property for $160 per acre. He then came
to the San Joaquin Valley and settled in the Turlock Irrigation District, about
five and a half miles northwest of Turlock, where he bought forty acres. He engaged in the breeding of fine horses and
also ran a dairy, among his stock being some registered Holsteins. Mr. Sorter brought his land to a high state
of cultivation, and at the end of seven years sold the place and stock at
public auction. In 1918 he came to the
Lodi section and purchased twenty acres in vineyard. Here he built a modern bungalow and has
installed two irrigation plants.
The marriage of Mr. Sorter occurred
at Dakota City, Nebraska, on April 10, 1893, and united him with Miss Letha
Allen, a native of Mondamin, Iowa, but reared in Nebraska, the daughter of
James and Nancy Allen. She is one of
five children: Sena,
Ella, Letha, William and Louis. Her
father was a farmer in Iowa and a pioneer in Nebraska, and there Mrs. Sorter
received her education. Mr. Sorter’s
life has been active, useful and honorable and commands for him the esteem and
confidence of his neighbors and friends.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1638. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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