San
Joaquin County
Biographies
THOMAS H. STAGG
A representative businessman of San
Joaquin County, whose influence in commercial circles has increased each year
with his own interesting activities, is Thomas H. Stagg, the pioneer harness
dealer and auto trimmer of North Main Street, Manteca. He was born in Allegany County, New York, on
October 24, 1851, the son of Jacob D. Stagg, who came across the plains to
California in 1853, and settled at Stockton.
There, in partnership with R. B. Lane and H. S. Sargent he established
and conducted a flour mill on Weber Ave., between San Joaquin and Sutter
streets.
Our subject accompanied his mother
west by way of the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in Stockton on New Year’s Day,
1856. He attended the public schools of
Stockton and Santa Cruz, and in 1868 returned to Stockton and entered the
harness shop of the late Thomas Cunningham, the pioneer and ex-sheriff, where
for seven years he worked daily. In
1877, he went to Portland to become a foreman in a large factory; but in 1879,
he went to Seattle and was in business until 1885. In 1885, he returned to California and
settled at Modesto, and was the foreman for B. Weil & Son, until 1900; on
January 1, that year he became a stockholder and department manager in the
Turner Hardware Company, at Modesto, and for twenty-one years he was with that
firm at Modesto.
At Merced, on April 5, 1875, he was
married to Miss Julia Robbins, a daughter of Norman Robbins, a prominent and
influential capitalist at Stockton. Four
children were born to this fortunate union.
Florence married and is the widow of Fred Post; and she resides with her
daughter at Stockton. Harry is
vice-president of the Turner Hardware Company, at Modesto, and has a wife and
two children. Robin has become Mrs. J.
C. Adams, and she resides at San Francisco with her two daughters. And Raymond Stagg has a wife and three sons,
and is a prominent commercial photographer, with a well-known studio at Los
Angeles, being one of the leading artists in his line. Mrs. Stagg passed away at Modesto on June 4,
1917, mourned by a wide circle of admiring friends.
After living for thirty-four years
in Stanislaus County, Mr. Stagg in September, 1919, removed to Manteca, where
he opened a first-class harness and leather-goods shop on North Main
Street. He is a member of the Chamber of
Commerce of Manteca, is prominent as a Republican and has served on the County
Central Committee of that party, and he has been president of the California
Retail Harness Manufacturing Association for the past three years.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1003-1004. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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