San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WALTER VINCENT
For the past twenty-four years,
Walter Vincent has rendered valuable service in the employ of the Stockton Iron
Works as a blacksmith; he has also been interested in agricultural pursuits and
is the owner of a fine sixty-acre ranch near Collegeville. He was born in Stockton, January 14, 1862, a
son of George and Annie (Ferrier) Vincent, natives of Vermont and Scotland,
respectively. George Vincent came to
California in the early ‘50s, via Panama, and after his arrival engaged in
mining at Coloma and also clerked in a grocery store there; he also mined in
Nevada in the early days. Both George
Vincent and his wife were well-known to the citizens of Stockton in pioneer
days, for they conducted a millinery store and in connection with it they were
agents for sewing machines. George
Vincent was an inventor of considerable ability. Among his inventions was a sewing machine run
by water power; a hemmer, which has been adopted by sewing machine companies;
he invented a flexible truck; also a valve used on screen doors. He worked on his inventions for twenty years
and he and his wife carried on their store successfully; he was the possessor
of a fine tenor voice and sang in different churches in the city. George Vincent and his wife were the parents
of seven children, four grew up and three are now living: George Jr., grew to manhood and died in 1920;
Walter; Clarence, residing in Oakland; and Horace, bookkeeper in the Stockton
Savings & Loan Bank. The mother passed
away in 1871 and was survived by her husband until 1894.
Walter Vincent attended the Franklin
school and the Lone Tree district school and at the youthful age of twelve
began to work on a ranch near Escalon, being engaged in ranching for a number
of years. When seventeen he returned to
Stockton where he learned the blacksmith’s trade with the Matteson-Williamson
Company; then completed his trade with the Bigelow Construction Company in San
Francisco, continuing there for two years.
Upon returning to San Joaquin Valley he entered the employ of Walter
Matteson in a machine shop at Oakdale; he then worked for the Houser Harvester
Company as a blacksmith, at the time his father was bookkeeper for the company. He then worked for the Shippee Company and for
twelve years was employed at the Globe Iron Works. In 1899 he entered the employ of the Stockton
Iron Works as blacksmith and he is still employed in that position for this
company.
The marriage of Mr. Vincent united
him with Miss Emily Ladd, born in Stockton, a daughter of that honored pioneer,
Ira W. Ladd, the ceremony taking place at the Ladd homestead on September 4,
1894. Ira W. Ladd was born in Vermont in
1837 and came to California with his brother George S. via Panama in 1852; he
was a miner and at the same time was a successful stockraiser. When he located in Stockton in 1856 he
engaged in freighting to the southern mines.
He became a very prominent land owner, owning 360 acres in San Joaquin
County, 800 acres in Solano County. He
married Miss Emily J. Sutherland in 1858, a daughter of Jacob Sutherland,
well-known as a pioneer, who had crossed the plains with his family in
1852. Ira W. Ladd and his good wife were
the parents of five children, three of whom are now living: Lillian Isabel; Frederick G., of Coalinga;
and Emily J., Mrs. Vincent. Ira W. Ladd
was a trustee of the Weber School District and fraternally was a charter member
of Stockton Lodge, No. 11, I. O. O. F., the San Joaquin County Society of
Pioneers and politically was a Republican.
He passed away in 1915, aged seventy-seven. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs.
Vincent: Walter Ladd, formerly with the
Bank of Italy in Stockton, now with that institution in San Francisco; Helen is
the wife of Clarence Richards and they reside in Stockton; and Robert is with
the Stockton Paint Company. Mr. Vincent
is a member of Truth Lodge, No. 55, I. O. O. F., and also of the Encampment in
which he is past chief patriarch.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1509-1510. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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