San
Joaquin County
Biographies
FRED B. STOWELL
Construction work engaged the
attention of Fred B. Stowell for a number of years and he was associated with
some of the largest development projects both in this state and in Nevada. He was born in San Benito County, California,
June 2, 1878, and attended the country schools of that county, and later at
Hollister. When he was seventeen he went
to San Francisco and took up the trade of machinist and blacksmith, and was
employed by the Union Iron Works and the San Francisco Construction
Company. Later he became a steam shovel
engineer and was engaged all over the state in large construction work, and
also in Nevada, where for two years, from 1903 to 1905, he was connected with
the Truckee-Carson project. He was also
with the Bucyrus Steam Shovel Company in Nevada, and in 1906 he took up his
work with the Utah Construction Company and helped in the construction of the
Western Pacific Railroad when that company was building its line through the
state. He was with the Southern Pacific
Railroad in building the Applegate Tunnel and worked on the Los Angeles
Aqueduct in the Mojave Desert at Lone Pine, and later assisted in the
construction of the reservoir at Oakdale.
Altogether he operated for two and a half years under ground. In 1916 Mr. Stowell came to Stockton and for
four years was engaged in the grocery business; he is now the head of an
automobile business at Miner and Hunter streets, buying and selling used cars.
At Oakland in 1903, Mr. Stowell was
married to Miss Mary Garbarino, a native daughter of
California, and they have one daughter, Bernice May, who has shown unusual
aptitude in her studies. She has already
completed a two years’ commercial course in the Stockton high school and will
graduate from that school in June, 1923, having taken the four years’ academic
course in three years. Mr. Stowell is
the owner of valuable mining claims in the Mother lode, where he was engaged as
a hoisting engineer for some time.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1179-1180. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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