San
Joaquin County
Biographies
OTTO M. VOGELSANG
A worthy citizen of Stockton, who
has a record of continuous service with one firm of thirty-eight years, is Otto
M. Vogelsang, the owner and proprietor of the James T. Mills Hardware Company,
30 East Main Street. He was born in
Petersburg, Calaveras County, California, on December 12, 1864. He received his education in the country
schools and his first job was herding sheep for three months for Fred
Beal. In 1882 he went to Stockton and
was employed with James T. Mills, and there he learned the tinsmith and
plumbers’ trade; later he became the foreman of all outside work. Upon the death of Mr. Mills in 1900 he
assumed the management of the business.
Mr. Mills’ daughter, Miss M. Alice Mills, succeeded to the business and
when she passed away in 1920 she willed the entire stock and fixtures of the
hardware store, free of debt, and $3,000 in cash to Mr. Vogelsang, a fitting
tribute for his faithful and efficient years of service to her father and
herself. Miss Mills was graduated from
the Stockton high school in 1871, this being the first graduating class from
that institution.
James T. Mills was a native of
Hartford, Connecticut. When he was a
young boy he ran away from home and went to sea; he sailed around the Horn to
California in 1849 and in 1850 settled in Stockton and opened a plumbing and
hardware store, the first of its kind in Stockton. He was a fine mechanic and worked on many of
the first buildings to be erected in Stockton; among them the Catholic Church,
the First Presbyterian Church, the First Methodist Church and the first court
house erected in Stockton. He was active
in civic affairs, serving on the city council, the city board of education; was
a member of the Volunteer Fire Department and Exempt Firemen’s Association; he
was a charter member of the Charity Lodge of Odd Fellows. He was an active member of the Congregational
Church, and a strong temperance advocate, and was beloved by all who knew him.
The marriage of Mr. Vogelsang united
him with Miss Nancy Gertrude Wyatt, a native of Stockton, California, whose
parents were pioneers of that section.
They are the parents of two sons.
Harold A. is secretary to the chief of police of Stockton. During the World War he was sent to France
and became machine-gun and bayonet instructor and during his service of
eighteen months drilled 40,000 men; he was one of five who went from San
Joaquin County to serve as instructors during the war. Ralph Leslie, formerly treasurer of the Yosemite
Theater, is now a stage carpenter. He
served the last two months of the war in the motor truck division at Tacoma,
Washington. While the greater portion of
his time is consumed by his business, Mr. Vogelsang can be counted upon to
support all public-spirited movements for the good of the community.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
644. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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