San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CLAUDE R. VAN KEUREN
For many years Claude R. Van Keuren
has been recognized throughout central California territory as one of the
widely experienced engineers of the West.
He was born in McKean County, Pennsylvania, on October 7, 1886, the son
of Herbert G. and Mary (Harrington) Van Keuren, his father a native of New York
State, whose ancestors had settled there in 1628; his mother, a native of
Ireland, came to America at the age of four years. Herbert G. Van Keuren was a student of medicine
in the Academy at Buffalo, New York, but after fitting himself for that
profession, he decided, about 1871, to enter the oil industry at Bradford
fields in northern Pennsylvania and has followed that line ever since. His first experience was as an oil worker at
Bradford fields; then he was transferred to Weldwood
fields, then to McDonald, where he has become superintendent of the Willet
& Paul Oil Company with outstanding success. A brother of our subject, Thomas H. Van
Keuren, is at present general superintendent of the Ohio Oil Company of the
state of Kentucky, located at Bowling Green, where he
resides with his family.
The education of Claude R. Van
Keuren was obtained in the public schools of McDonald, Pennsylvania, where he
continued until he was sixteen years of age; leaving school to enter the employ
of an oil company as a roustabout; he spent about six years in the West
Virginia fields, as well as the fields in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and in 1908
decided to come west. Arriving in
California, Mr. Van Keuren made his way to the Coalinga field in Fresno County
and found work with the California Ltd., doing odd jobs, which occupied him for
one year, when he returned east and worked for the South Pennsylvania Oil
Company in Ohio and Pennsylvania. In
1910 he returned to the Golden State, thoroughly satisfied to settle down and
make this state his permanent home, and in 1911 removed to Tulare County and
was employed by the Standard Oil Company as an oiler in the pump station on the
main line north to the Richmond refineries.
Gradually working up, he became an engineer at Kimberlin,
Kern County, and early in 1914 was advanced to the position of chief engineer,
where he spent four years to the entire satisfaction both of himself and his
employers. In May, 1918, he was placed
in charge of the Tracy plant as chief engineer and he successfully carried this
responsibility, both for the interests of the company and for his own
advancement.
The marriage of Mr. Van Keuren
united him with Miss Nellie Oliver, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Oliver,
residents of McDonald, Pennsylvania, and Mr. and Mrs. Van Keuren made an
extended trip to their old homes in Pennsylvania by automobile. Leaving Tracy July 17, 1922, they visited in
Pennsylvania, and incidentally visited the oil fields in Wyoming, Montana,
Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, West Virginia, Indiana
and other states. Arriving in Tracy
September 18, 1922, Mr. Van Keuren was assigned to the Vernalis station on the
pipe line pumping plant of the Standard Oil Company’s main pump-line from
Bakersfield to Point Richmond, where he resumed his position as chief engineer,
entering upon his new station September 26, 1922. Mr. Van Keuren is identified with the Safety
Engineers Society of California and is a member of the Scottish Rite of the Masonic order in Bakersfield, and of the Grand
Fraternity of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1159-1160. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases