San
Joaquin County
Biographies
HENRY STIER
It
is seldom the privilege of a biographer to write a review of the life of a
centenarian, and it is with pleasure that we record the activities of Henry
Stier, a resident of Stockton for nearly sixty-five years. He took great interest in the affairs of
city, state and nation, and it was indeed interesting to converse with him on
matters pertaining to the long ago. A
native of Germany, he was born on October 20, 1819, fifty miles from Frankfort-on-Main,
and learned the trade of shoemaker in his native land. He immigrated to America and landed in
Baltimore, Maryland, on November 22, 1845.
For ten years he was in various cities of the east, among them being
Lancaster, Pennsylvania; New York City; Cincinnati, Ohio; Nashville, Tennessee;
and St. Louis, Missouri; and successfully followed his trade. In 1854 he started for California via the
Nicaragua route. Landing in San
Francisco during the same year, he engaged in his chosen occupation. He was a member of the famous Vigilantes. In
1857 he removed to Stockton, and in 1860 opened a shoe store on North El Dorado
Street. He was occupied as a shoemaker
up to about twenty years ago, when he retired from active business life. Mr. Stier well remembered seeing the first
railroad engine enter the city over the Central Pacific (now the Southern
Pacific) tracks in 1868.
The
first marriage of Mr. Stier occurred in Germany, in 18480, and of that union
was born one son, John, now deceased.
Mr. Stier’s second marriage occurred in 1850
in St. Louis, Missouri, and united him with Miss Helena Belt, a native of
Illinois, who passed away at Stockton April 1, 1904. They were the parents of three children, all
living: Leroy Henry, of Fresno; Edward
James, in Alaska; and Clara A., who was educated in the schools of Stockton and
was graduated from the Stockton high school in 1876.
Since
1877 Clara A. Stier has been a teacher in the public schools of Stockton. She has witnessed many changes and introduced
many new methods in the schools during her forty-three years of faithful and
efficient service. She has been active
in all educational matters, and is now teaching in the Lafayette School. For many years she was soprano in the
Episcopal Church. Her mother was an excellent
business woman, and the daughter has no doubt inherited much of her mother’s
ability. She has been successful in her
various business ventures, and owns valuable real
estate in Stockton and a productive forty-acre vineyard near Manteca, which she
planted in 1907. She is past president
of the San Joaquin Parlor No. 5, N. D. G. W.
Henry
Stier was always a stalwart Republican, and voted for
eighteen Presidents of the United States.
He cast his first vote for President Pierce in 1852, having become a
naturalized American citizen in 1851; twice he voted for Abraham Lincoln; and
he voted for President Harding at the last election. He was a well-informed man, kept abreast of
the times, and gained a valuable store of knowledge by reading the best of literature,
being especially interested in science and art; and he was a great lover of
music. He was always temperate in all
things, which accounted for his remarkable physical and mental activity, and
his unusual longevity. He was liberal
and enterprising, and was always ready to assist worthy enterprises and
movements for the betterment of conditions in the community. He died March 1, 1922.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
927. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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