San
Joaquin County
Biographies
LEON VILLINGER, SR.
The interest which attaches to the
life story of California pioneers is a visible expression of the gratitude
which all men feel toward the forerunners of civilization in the far west, numbered
among whom was Leon Villinger, Sr., who experienced all the hardships of those
primitive days in his struggle for success.
A native of Germany, with his wife and two daughters he started in 1850
on a sailing vessel for the far-off port of San Francisco, coming around the
Horn. Both of his daughters died on the
voyage and his eldest son Asa was born, the trip consuming eight months and
filled with perilous happenings. At one
time the ship was nearly lost, with all on board, as it sprang a leak off the
west coast of South America and all hands had to bail for their lives until
they could put in at the port of Valparaiso, Chile, where they remained six
weeks while repairs were being made.
Mr. Villinger, who was a jeweler and
watchmaker, engaged in this line of work in San Francisco for two years, and in
1853 he came to Stockton where he opened a jewelry shop, conducting it for two
years, when he took up 320 acres of government land three miles south of
Lodi. It was a hand to hand fight in
subduing the wilderness in those days and Mr. Villinger worked early and late
clearing the land of brush and timber twenty acres at a time, then planting it
in wheat. The Indian Reservation was
near his home and there were all kinds of wild animals and game in plenty in
the vicinity. He cut the wood on his
place and hauled it to Stockton, where he sold it for five to eight dollars a
cord. This was also the market for his wheat,
which brought about eighty cents per cental. There were no roads in those early days and
it took three days to get to Stockton through that wild country, the mud being
so deep in the winter that it was necessary to drag their loads all the sixteen
miles on sleds, with six mules hitched to them.
Mrs. Villinger, who was Mary Peshy before her
marriage, a native of France, passed away in Lodi in 1915 at the age of
ninety-five; a fine type of pioneer woman, she came of long-lived ancestry, her
father reaching the age of 104, while her mother lived to be ninety-six. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs.
Villinger the following are living: Asa
lives in Lodi; Lucian and John are ranchers in the Lodi district; Leon lives at
Lodi, and Mrs. Kate Goodwin makes her home at Fullerton, California.
Leon Villinger, Jr., was born on the
old ranch near Lodi November 5, 1854.
The country was very sparsely settled then and the chances for schooling
were meager, so as there was work for everyone in the family, Leon started at
the early age of eight to plow the virgin soil with a two-mule team. When he was eighteen he developed a ranch of
160 acres near the river northeast of Lodi, farming it to grain for seven
years. He then located in Santa Ana,
Orange County, California, where he purchased a thirty-seven acre orange grove,
making this his home for seventeen years.
When he returned to Lodi he first bought a place of twenty acres on
Cherokee Lane, which he improved, planting some of it to grapes, and at the end
of six years he disposed of it at a good profit. He then bought the property at 222 East Oak
Street, Lodi, and erected the residence which has since been his home. Meanwhile he has been interested in the
development of other properties, purchasing land next to the old cemetery, of
which he was custodian for some time, later selling this land to Mrs. Frances
Barton. He also bought forty acres on
the river north of Lodi which he brought to a high state of improvement,
planting a vineyard and installing a fine irrigation system with cement piping
and two pumping plants, and after three years he sold this property to his son
Charles L. Villinger.
Mr. Villinger’s
marriage united him with Miss Mary E. McCoy, who was born at Mt. Pleasant,
Iowa, and three children were born to them:
Charles L., Fred H. and Mrs. Edith E. Ray. Always a leader in community enterprise, Mr.
Villinger was elected as a member of the first board of trustees when Lodi was
incorporated in 1906, serving six years and giving faithful service, the board
holding 101 meetings the first year, when so many matters were coming up for
adjustment. He is also prominent in the
Lodi Lodge of Odd Fellows, having passed through all the chairs.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
489-490. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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