San
Joaquin County
Biographies
GEORGE M. THURMAN
One of the industrious, progressive
and influential ranchers of the Lockeford district is George M. Thurman, who in
1919 became the owner of 240 acres two and one-half miles southeast of Lockeford
and who is keenly interested in the cultivation and development of his
property. He was born at Salinas,
Monterey County, April 26, 1871, the son of John and Mary (Womick)
Thurman, natives of Kentucky and Missouri, respectively. The father, a carpenter by trade, came to
California in 1850, the year of his marriage, and the young people first
settled in San Joaquin County, but only remained for a short time when they
removed to Monterey County where John Thurman plied his trade. When our subject, George M. was a small boy,
his parents removed to Los Nietos, now Orange County, where they remained for a
number of years; then settled in Keyes Canyon, San Diego County, and were
pioneers of that section. There were four
children in the family: Sanford, John
W., George M., our subject, and Mary.
George M. Thurman remained with his
parents until he was twenty-one years of age, then
went to Arizona where he homesteaded a quarter-section of land in the Yuma
Valley, which he proved up on and lived there for twenty-three years, with the
exception of two years that he spent in the Imperial Valley of California near
Heber.
On July 26, 1892, at Valley Center,
San Diego County occurred the marriage of Mr. Thurman
and Miss Mary Huckaby, born in Santa Ana, California, a daughter of David and
Adelissa Huckaby. The Huckaby family was
pioneers in California who came from Arkansas in the early days and stopped for
a few years in Santa Ana, then moved to Bear Valley, San Diego County, and Mrs.
Thurman received her education in the schools of Valley Center. Mr. Thurman’s Arizona ranch was bottom land
along the Colorado River and was entirely devoted to the raising of stock and
bees; of late year’s cotton is being raised to advantage on it. Mr. Thurman still owns eighty acres of this
ranch. In 1917 he left the Yuma Valley
and settled to Buena Park, Orange County, where he farmed for two years, then
purchased a twenty-five acre ranch at Buena Park and a six acre place near
there. Two years later, or in 1919, he
traded his Orange County property for 240 acres southeast of Lockeford where he
has since resided with his family.
Besides general farming, Mr. Thurman is equipped to do leveling and
grading of land throughout the county.
He has recently installed an eight-inch Byron-Jackson deep well turbine
pump with a twenty-five horse-power engine, which will furnish sufficient water
for irrigation purposes.
Mr. Thurman’s family consists of his
wife and six children: Agnes is Mrs.
Horn of Buena Park and they have three children, Paul, Leona, and Harold; Mrs.
Ethel Moss of Somerton, Arizona, has one son, Eugene; Ralph is married and has
three children, Alta, Eva, and Dorothy; Clyde is married and has one child,
Mae; Harold and Ernest are the youngest of the family. While residing in Yuma Valley Mr. Thurman
served as judge of the justice court and was also deputy sheriff for many
years. He is a Democrat, and he and his
family are members of the Congregational Church of Lockeford, where Mr. Thurman
serves as one of the trustees of the church.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1590-1591. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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